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Role of a single session of ball throwing exercise on postural control in older adults with mild cognitive impairment

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of training in improvement of balance control in older adults with mild cognitive impairment.

Methods

Older adults (mean age 78) with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and cognitively intact older adults (mean age 72) were exposed to self-initiated perturbations while performing bilateral shoulder flexion task before and after a single training session consisting of throwing a medicine ball. EMG activity of six trunk and lower limb muscles was recorded. Muscle onsets, integrals of EMG, and muscle co-contraction (C) and reciprocal (R) activation indices were calculated and analyzed during the anticipatory and compensatory phases of postural control.

Results

Anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) were observed in both groups.  Individuals with MCI, as compared to controls, had higher level of co-contraction of muscles. The training resulted in enhancement of the generation of APAs in individuals with MCI seen as earlier onset of leg and trunk muscle activity prior to the bilateral arm flexion task. While smaller co-contraction of muscles post-training was seen in both the groups, the effect of a single training session was significant in control subjects only.

Conclusions

The outcome of the exploratory study suggests that perturbation-based training could be used to improve balance control in older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the study participants for their exceptional cooperation

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Department of Physical Therapy, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI, USA

    Yunju Lee

  2. Department of Physical Therapy (MC 898), University of Illinois At Chicago, 1919 W. Taylor St., Chicago, IL, 60612, USA

    Nikita Goyal & Alexander S. Aruin

  3. Department of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Geraldine Luna

Authors
  1. Yunju Lee
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  2. Nikita Goyal
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  3. Geraldine Luna
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  4. Alexander S. Aruin
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Yunju Lee and Nikita Goyal. The first draft of the manuscript was written by  Yunju Lee and Alexander Aruin and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexander S. Aruin.

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The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

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Communicated by Lori Ann Vallis.

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Lee, Y., Goyal, N., Luna, G. et al. Role of a single session of ball throwing exercise on postural control in older adults with mild cognitive impairment. Eur J Appl Physiol 120, 443–451 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-019-04289-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-019-04289-1

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