Effects of age and task difficulty on postural sway, variability and complexity

SHAFIZADEH, Mohsen, SHAHAB, Parvinpour, MARZIE, Balali and MOHSEN, Shabani (2020). Effects of age and task difficulty on postural sway, variability and complexity. Adaptive Behavior.

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Abstract

This study aimed to examine the effects of age and the task difficulty on postural sway, variability and complexity. The participants were 90 able-bodied individuals from children (n = 39; age: 5.89 ± 0.94 years), young adults (n = 30; age: 23.23 ± 1.61 years) and older adults (n = 21; age: 64.59 ± 5.24 years) that took part in different balance tasks that were had different levels of cognitive and physical challenges. The main dependent variables were postural sway area, postural variability and postural complexity. The participants stood on a standard force plate for 10 seconds in each task condition, and the centre of pressure displacement was collected at 100 sampling frequency. The results of this study showed that children and older adults, in the more difficult tasks, had greater sway area and complexity and less postural variability. In addition, there was a linear trend in the stability measures as the difficulty of the task was increased. In conclusion, special populations, such as children and older adults, were more sensitive to the balance changes and used active control mechanisms to minimise the risk of losing balance in more challenging conditions.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing; 1701 Psychology; 1702 Cognitive Sciences; Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1177/1059712320963974
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Elements
Depositing User:	Symplectic Elements
Date Deposited:	21 Sep 2020 13:35
Last Modified:	17 Mar 2021 21:01
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/27232

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