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The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences Advance Access originally published online on July 17, 2009
The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 2009 64B(5):569-576; doi:10.1093/geronb/gbp060
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Perceptual Inhibition is Associated with Sensory Integration in Standing Postural Control Among Older Adults

Mark S. Redfern1,2, J. Richard Jennings3,4, David Mendelson5 and Robert D. Nebes4

1 Department of Bioengineering
2 Department of Otolaryngology
3 Department of Psychology
4 Department of Psychiatry
5 Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Address correspondence to Mark S. Redfern, PhD, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, 745 BEH, 3700 O’Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA 15261. Email: mredfern{at}pitt.edu


  Abstract

In older adults, maintaining balance and processing information typically interfere with each other, suggesting that executive functions may be engaged for both. We investigated associations between measures of inhibitory processes and standing postural control in healthy young and older adults. Perceptual and motor inhibition was measured using a protocol adapted from Nassauer and Halperin (2003, Dissociation of perceptual and motor inhibition processes through the use of novel computerized conflict tasks. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 9, 25–30). These measures were then correlated to postural sway during standing conditions that required resolving various levels of sensory conflict, for example, world-fixed versus sway-referenced floor and visual scene. In the older adults, perceptual inhibition was positively correlated with sway amplitude on a sway-referenced floor and with a fixed visual scene (r = .68, p < .001). Motor inhibition was not correlated with sway on either group. Perceptual inhibition may be a component of the sensory integration process important for maintaining balance in older adults.

Key Words: Attention • Balance • Inhibition • Sensory

Received June 4, 2008; Accepted May 27, 2009

Decision Editor: Elizabeth Stine-Morrow, PhD


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