Relationship between lower limb muscle activity and cortical activation among elderly people during walking: Effects of fast speed and cognitive dual task

Jinuk Kim; Jungsoo Lee; Gihyoun Lee; Won Hyuk Chang; Myoung-Hwan Ko; Woo-Kyoung Yoo; Gyu-Ha Ryu; Yun-Hee Kim

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2022.1059563

Relationship between lower limb muscle activity and cortical activation among elderly people during walking: Effects of fast speed and cognitive dual task

Front Aging Neurosci. 2023 Jan 10:14:1059563. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.1059563. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jinuk Kim^{1

2}, Jungsoo Lee³, Gihyoun Lee⁴, Won Hyuk Chang⁴, Myoung-Hwan Ko⁵, Woo-Kyoung Yoo⁶, Gyu-Ha Ryu^{7

8

9}, Yun-Hee Kim^{1

4

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Science and Technology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
² Ybrain Inc., Seongnam-si, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Medical IT Convergence Engineering, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Gumi, Republic of Korea.
⁴ Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Center for Prevention and Rehabilitation, Heart Vascular Stroke Institute, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
⁵ Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Jeonbuk National University Medical School, Jeonju, Republic of Korea.
⁶ Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Anyang, Republic of Korea.
⁷ Office of R&D Strategy and Planning, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
⁸ Department of Medical Device Management and Research, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Science and Technology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
⁹ Department of Digital Health, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Science and Technology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Objective: Gait is a complex behavior that involves not only the musculoskeletal system, but also higher-order brain functions, including cognition. This study was performed to investigate the correlation between lower limb muscle activity and cortical activation during treadmill walking in two groups of elderly people: the young-old (aged 65-74 years) and the old-old (aged 75-84 years).

Methods: Thirty-one young-old and 31 old-old people participated in this study. All participants were sequentially subjected to three gait conditions on a treadmill: (1) comfortable walking, (2) fast walking, and (3) cognitive dual-task walking. During treadmill walking, the activity of the lower limb muscles was measured using a surface electromyography system, and cortical activation was measured using a functional near-infrared spectroscopy system. The correlation between muscle activity and cortical activation during treadmill walking was analyzed and compared between the two groups.

Results: During comfortable walking, lower extremity muscle activity had a strong correlation with cortical activation, especially in the swing phase; this was significantly stronger in the young-old than the old-old. During fast walking, the correlations between lower limb muscle activity and cortical activation were stronger than those during comfortable walking in both groups. In cognitive dual-task walking, cortical activation in the frontal region and motor area was increased, although the correlation between muscle activity and cortical activation was weaker than that during comfortable walking in both groups.

Conclusion: The corticomotor correlation differed significantly between the old-old and the young-old. These results suggest that gait function is compensated by regulating corticomotor correlation as well as brain activity during walking in the elderly. These results could serve as a basis for developing gait training and fall prevention programs for the elderly.

Keywords: cognitive dual task; cortical activation; elderly; functional near-infrared spectroscopy; gait; muscle activity.