A new study has revealed how the brain responds when balance demands increase during stepping tasks, offering important insights into mobility and fall risk in older people.
Maintaining balance while moving is not automatic – it requires conscious processing from cognitive brain regions. To better understand this process, research led by Institute member Associate Professor Jasmine Menant compared young and older adults performing stepping reaction time tasks in both supported (using armrests) and unsupported standing conditions. Cortical activity was measured using a mobile imaging system called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). It focused on key regions involved in attention and movement planning.
The study found that both young and older participants had slower stepping response times when standing unsupported compared to supported. In younger adults, this was accompanied by increased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, and premotor cortex during the simplest stepping task. These findings suggest that these brain regions play a critical role in balance control when postural demands increase.
Older participants demonstrated slower stepping times across all tasks and showed higher overall cortical activation, indicating they may require greater cognitive effort to maintain performance.
“Our findings show that maintaining balance while stepping draws heavily on frontal brain resources, particularly in older people,” says A/Prof Menant. “Understanding these neural demands helps explain why older adults may be more vulnerable to falls and highlights the importance of targeted cognitive-motor training to support safe mobility and fall prevention strategies.”