Journal article

IMPAIRED STANDING BALANCE: THE CLINICAL NEED FOR CLOSING THE LOOP

JH Pasma, D Engelhart, AC Schouten, H Van der Kooij, AB Maier, CGM Meskers

NEUROSCIENCE | PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD | Published : 2014

Abstract

Impaired balance may limit mobility and daily activities, and plays a key role in the elderly falling. Maintaining balance requires a concerted action of the sensory, nervous and motor systems, whereby cause and effect mutually affect each other within a closed loop. Aforementioned systems and their connecting pathways are prone to chronological age and disease-related deterioration. System redundancy allows for compensation strategies, e.g. sensory reweighting, to maintain standing balance in spite of the deterioration of underlying systems. Once those strategies fail, impaired balance and possible falls may occur. Targeted interventions to prevent falling require knowledge of the quality o..

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Grants

Awarded by MYOAGE


Funding Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the Dutch Technology Foundation STW, which is part of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research ( NWO), and which is partly funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Furthermore, this research is supported by the seventh framework program MYOAGE (HEALTH- 2007-2.4.5-10).