Medial-lateral postural control in older adults exhibits increased stiffness and damping

Older adults often exhibit increased co-contraction in response to a balance perturbation. This response is generally thought to enhance stability by increasing joint stiffness. We investigated the issue of increased stiffness in postural control by exposing seven older (75 +/- 5 y) and ten young (24 +/- 3 y) adults to pseudo-random medial-lateral (ML) floor tilts, and then fitting the measured ML body sway data to a previously-developed postural control model that includes stiffness and damping parameters. Significant increases were found in both parameters in the older adults compared to the young adults. This concurrent increase in stiffness and damping is more stabilizing than an increase in stiffness alone, which can lead to resonances.