Université de Fribourg

Postural challenge affects motor cortical activity in young and old adults

Papegaaij, Selma ; Taube, Wolfgang ; Keeken, Helco G. van ; Otten, Egbert ; Baudry, Stéphane ; Hortobágyi, Tibor

In: Experimental Gerontology, 2016, vol. 73, p. 78–85

When humans voluntarily activate a muscle, intracortical inhibition decreases. Such a decrease also occurs in the presence of a postural challenge and more so with increasing age. Here, we examined age-related changes in motor cortical activity during postural and non-postural contractions with varying levels of postural challenge. Fourteen young (age 22) and twelve old adults (age 70) performed...

Université de Fribourg

Aging causes a reorganization of cortical and spinal control of posture

Papegaaij, Selma ; Taube, Wolfgang ; Baudry, Stéphane ; Otten, Egbert ; Hortobágyi, Tibor

In: Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 2014, vol. 6, p. 28

Classical studies in animal preparations suggest a strong role for spinal control of posture. In humans it is now established that the cerebral cortex contributes to postural control of unperturbed and perturbed standing. The age-related degeneration and accompanying functional changes in the brain, reported so far mainly in conjunction with simple manual motor tasks, may also affect the...