Differential Cortical Activations Among Young Adults Who Fall Versus Those Who Recover Successfully Following an Unexpected Slip During Walking
<b>Background:</b> Biomechanical and neuromuscular differences between falls and recoveries have been well-studied; however, the cortical correlations remain unclear. Using mobile brain imaging via electroencephalography (EEG), we examined differences in sensorimotor beta frequencies bet...
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MDPI AG
2025-07-01
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| author | Rudri Purohit Shuaijie Wang Tanvi Bhatt |
| author_facet | Rudri Purohit Shuaijie Wang Tanvi Bhatt |
| author_sort | Rudri Purohit |
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| description | <b>Background:</b> Biomechanical and neuromuscular differences between falls and recoveries have been well-studied; however, the cortical correlations remain unclear. Using mobile brain imaging via electroencephalography (EEG), we examined differences in sensorimotor beta frequencies between falls and recoveries during an unpredicted slip in walking. <b>Methods</b>: We recruited 22 young adults (15 female; 18–35 years) who experienced a slip (65 cm) during walking. Raw EEG signals were band-pass filtered, and independent component analysis was performed to remove non-neural sources, eventually three participants were excluded due to excessive artifacts. Peak beta power was extracted from three time-bins: 400 milliseconds pre-, 0–150 milliseconds post and 150–300 milliseconds post-perturbation from the midline (Cz) electrode. A 2 × 3 Analysis of Covariance assessed the interaction between time-bins and group on beta power, followed by Independent and Paired <i>t</i>-tests for between and within-group post hoc comparisons. <b>Results:</b> All participants (<i>n</i> = 19) experienced a balance loss, seven experienced a fall. There was a time × group interaction on beta power <i>(p</i> < 0.05). With no group differences pre-perturbation, participants who experienced a fall exhibited higher beta power during 0–150 milliseconds post-perturbation than those who recovered <i>(p</i> < 0.001). However, there were no group differences in beta power during 150–300 milliseconds post-perturbation. <b>Conclusions</b>: Young adults exhibiting a greater increase in beta power during the early post-perturbation period experienced a fall, suggesting a higher cortical error detection due to a larger mismatch in the expected and ongoing postural state and greater cortical dependence for sensorimotor processing. Our study results provide an overview of the possible cortical governance to modulate slip-fall/recovery outcomes. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-91b345fbac284009b6a7bd85ba8f6983 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2076-3425 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
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| series | Brain Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-91b345fbac284009b6a7bd85ba8f69832025-08-20T02:45:53ZengMDPI AGBrain Sciences2076-34252025-07-0115776510.3390/brainsci15070765Differential Cortical Activations Among Young Adults Who Fall Versus Those Who Recover Successfully Following an Unexpected Slip During WalkingRudri Purohit0Shuaijie Wang1Tanvi Bhatt2Department of Physical Therapy, College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 60612, USADepartment of Physical Therapy, College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 60612, USADepartment of Physical Therapy, College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 60612, USA<b>Background:</b> Biomechanical and neuromuscular differences between falls and recoveries have been well-studied; however, the cortical correlations remain unclear. Using mobile brain imaging via electroencephalography (EEG), we examined differences in sensorimotor beta frequencies between falls and recoveries during an unpredicted slip in walking. <b>Methods</b>: We recruited 22 young adults (15 female; 18–35 years) who experienced a slip (65 cm) during walking. Raw EEG signals were band-pass filtered, and independent component analysis was performed to remove non-neural sources, eventually three participants were excluded due to excessive artifacts. Peak beta power was extracted from three time-bins: 400 milliseconds pre-, 0–150 milliseconds post and 150–300 milliseconds post-perturbation from the midline (Cz) electrode. A 2 × 3 Analysis of Covariance assessed the interaction between time-bins and group on beta power, followed by Independent and Paired <i>t</i>-tests for between and within-group post hoc comparisons. <b>Results:</b> All participants (<i>n</i> = 19) experienced a balance loss, seven experienced a fall. There was a time × group interaction on beta power <i>(p</i> < 0.05). With no group differences pre-perturbation, participants who experienced a fall exhibited higher beta power during 0–150 milliseconds post-perturbation than those who recovered <i>(p</i> < 0.001). However, there were no group differences in beta power during 150–300 milliseconds post-perturbation. <b>Conclusions</b>: Young adults exhibiting a greater increase in beta power during the early post-perturbation period experienced a fall, suggesting a higher cortical error detection due to a larger mismatch in the expected and ongoing postural state and greater cortical dependence for sensorimotor processing. Our study results provide an overview of the possible cortical governance to modulate slip-fall/recovery outcomes.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/15/7/765beta powercerebral cortexslipfallssensorimotor processing |
| spellingShingle | Rudri Purohit Shuaijie Wang Tanvi Bhatt Differential Cortical Activations Among Young Adults Who Fall Versus Those Who Recover Successfully Following an Unexpected Slip During Walking Brain Sciences beta power cerebral cortex slip falls sensorimotor processing |
| title | Differential Cortical Activations Among Young Adults Who Fall Versus Those Who Recover Successfully Following an Unexpected Slip During Walking |
| title_full | Differential Cortical Activations Among Young Adults Who Fall Versus Those Who Recover Successfully Following an Unexpected Slip During Walking |
| title_fullStr | Differential Cortical Activations Among Young Adults Who Fall Versus Those Who Recover Successfully Following an Unexpected Slip During Walking |
| title_full_unstemmed | Differential Cortical Activations Among Young Adults Who Fall Versus Those Who Recover Successfully Following an Unexpected Slip During Walking |
| title_short | Differential Cortical Activations Among Young Adults Who Fall Versus Those Who Recover Successfully Following an Unexpected Slip During Walking |
| title_sort | differential cortical activations among young adults who fall versus those who recover successfully following an unexpected slip during walking |
| topic | beta power cerebral cortex slip falls sensorimotor processing |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/15/7/765 |
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