Visual feedback training improves postural adjustments associated with moving obstacle avoidance in elderly women

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Biomechanics
• Motor Control

Background:

• Falls are a major concern for elderly individuals, often resulting from impaired postural adjustments.
• Visually guided weight shifting (WS) is a potential training method to improve balance and reduce fall risk.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of visually guided WS practice on postural adjustments in elderly women during a collision avoidance task.
• To determine if the direction of WS practice influences the effectiveness of training.

Main Methods:

• Fifty-six healthy elderly women were randomly assigned to anterior/posterior (A/P) WS, medial/lateral (M/L) WS, or a control group.
• Participants underwent 12 sessions of visually guided WS practice.
• A moving obstacle avoidance task was used to assess postural responses pre- and post-training.

Main Results:

• WS practice shifted postural response onset closer to the collision time.
• M/L WS practice reduced medial/lateral sway amplitude and increased trunk velocity during avoidance.
• Training enhanced on-line visuo-motor processing for collision avoidance.

Conclusions:

• Visually guided WS practice improves the ability of elderly women to process visual information for real-time postural adjustments.
• Direction-specific WS training is critical for optimizing the transfer of learned adaptations in obstacle avoidance.
• This training method reduces reliance on anticipatory scaling for collision avoidance.