Age-related differences in muscle synergy organization during step ascent at different heights and directions

Remco J. Baggen; Jaap H.van Dieën; Evelien Van Roie; Sabine M. Verschueren; Georgios Giarmatzis; Christophe Delecluse; Nadia Dominici

doi:10.3390/app10061987

Age-related differences in muscle synergy organization during step ascent at different heights and directions

Remco J. Baggen, Jaap H.van Dieën, Evelien Van Roie, Sabine M. Verschueren, Georgios Giarmatzis, Christophe Delecluse, Nadia Dominici^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the underlying age-related differences in dynamic motor control during different step ascent conditions using muscle synergy analysis. Eleven older women (67.0 y ± 2.5) and ten young women (22.5 y ± 1.6) performed stepping in forward and lateral directions at step heights of 10, 20 and 30 cm. Surface electromyography was obtained from 10 lower limb and torso muscles. Non-negative matrix factorization was used to identify sets of (n) synergies across age groups and stepping conditions. In addition, variance accounted for (VAF) by the detected number of synergies was compared to assess complexity of motor control. Finally, correlation coefficients of muscle weightings and between-subject variability of the temporal activation patterns were calculated and compared between age groups and stepping conditions. Four synergies accounted for >85% VAF across age groups and stepping conditions. Age and step height showed a significant negative correlation with VAF during forward stepping but not lateral stepping, with lower VAF indicating higher synergy complexity. Muscle weightings showed higher similarity across step heights in older compared to young women. Neuromuscular control of young and community-dwelling older women could not be differentiated based on the number of synergies extracted. Additional analyses of synergy structure and complexity revealed subtle age-and step-height-related differences, indicating that older women rely on more complex neuromuscular control strategies.

Original language	English
Article number	1987
Pages (from-to)	1-15
Number of pages	15
Journal	Applied Sciences (Switzerland)
Volume	10
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/app10061987
Publication status	Published - 14 Mar 2020

Funding

This study was funded by the European Commission through MOVE-AGE, an Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate programme (#2014-0691) fellowship awarded to R.J.B., the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen, #G0521-05) awarded to S.M.V., and the ERC-Starting Grant "Learn2Walk" (#715945) and the NWO VIDI-Grant "FirSTeps" (#016.156.346) both awarded to N.D. The authors would like to thank Tine De Reys for her assistance with data collection and processing and Hans Essers for his advice on the cluster analyses.

Funders	Funder number
ERC-Starting
FWO-Vlaanderen	0521-05
Fund for Scientific Research Flanders
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	715945
European Commission	2014-0691
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	016.156.346

Keywords

Aging
EMG
Forward stepping
Lateral stepping
Muscle synergies
Neural control

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abstract = "The aim of this study was to explore the underlying age-related differences in dynamic motor control during different step ascent conditions using muscle synergy analysis. Eleven older women (67.0 y ± 2.5) and ten young women (22.5 y ± 1.6) performed stepping in forward and lateral directions at step heights of 10, 20 and 30 cm. Surface electromyography was obtained from 10 lower limb and torso muscles. Non-negative matrix factorization was used to identify sets of (n) synergies across age groups and stepping conditions. In addition, variance accounted for (VAF) by the detected number of synergies was compared to assess complexity of motor control. Finally, correlation coefficients of muscle weightings and between-subject variability of the temporal activation patterns were calculated and compared between age groups and stepping conditions. Four synergies accounted for >85% VAF across age groups and stepping conditions. Age and step height showed a significant negative correlation with VAF during forward stepping but not lateral stepping, with lower VAF indicating higher synergy complexity. Muscle weightings showed higher similarity across step heights in older compared to young women. Neuromuscular control of young and community-dwelling older women could not be differentiated based on the number of synergies extracted. Additional analyses of synergy structure and complexity revealed subtle age-and step-height-related differences, indicating that older women rely on more complex neuromuscular control strategies.",

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Age-related differences in muscle synergy organization during step ascent at different heights and directions

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Keywords

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