Peripheral and central Postural Disorders in the Elderly

基底神经节疾病的姿势控制与中枢神经系统异常的相关程度 对身体位置和运动的内部表示的躯体感觉信息的处理 （动觉）未知。本项目旨在确定如何动觉信息用于姿势 健康老年受试者和帕金森病（PD）（一种基底神经节疾病）受试者的对照。 主观测量（心理物理）和客观测量（表面反作用力、运动身体 CoM位移和肌肉激活）将用于量化运动觉整合障碍， 与年龄匹配的对照受试者相比，PD受试者的姿势控制。站立和坐姿 由于与PD相关的站立和轴向姿势问题，将检查姿势控制。所有 研究将测试处于ON和OFF状态的PD受试者，以检查左旋多巴替代的效果 对姿势的动觉控制 具体的目标解决了动觉信息在姿势控制中的3个作用：目标I。确定 PD如何影响远、近关节位置觉和姿势垂直度觉。 exp. 1将检验基底神经节对有意识的踝关节和躯干动觉很重要的假设 站姿。exp. 2将测试假设，基底神经节整合前庭和 躯体感觉信息以提供姿势垂直的内部表示。目标I1。确定 PD是否损害了躯体感觉重力感受作为姿势参考的使用。实验3和4将测试 假设PD与缓慢的重力感受性躯体感觉信息的使用受损有关， 通常为垂直的姿势定向提供参考或“设定”点。目标二1.定义PD如何损害 补偿性跨步的运动相关动觉信息。实验5和6将检验假设 腿部和身体下落的运动觉受损会导致对视觉的依赖增加， 精确补偿步进，恢复平衡。 平衡障碍的有效康复需要更好地理解动觉信息是如何 用于关节对齐、姿势垂直度、姿势定向和姿势平衡控制 应答

The extent to which basal ganglia disorders of postural controlare associated with abnormal central processing of somatosensory information for an internal representation of body position and motion (kinesthesia) is unknown. This project seeks to determine how kinesthetic information is used for postural control in healthy elderly subjects and subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD), a basal ganglia disorder. Both subjective measures (psychophysical) and objective measures (surface reactive forces, kinematic body CoM displacement, and muscle activation) will be used to quantify disorders of kinesthetic integration for postural control in subjects with PD compared to age-matched control subjects. Standing and sitting postural control will be examined because of stance and axial postural problems associated with PD. All studies will test subjects with PD in the ON and OFF states to examine the effects of levodopa replacement on kinesthetic control of posture. The specific aims address 3 roles of kinesthetic information for the control of posture: Aim I. Determine how PD affects perception of distal and proximal joint position sense and perception of postural verticality. Exp. 1 will test the hypothesis that the basal ganglia are important for conscious ankle and torso kinesthesia in stance posture. Exp. 2 will test the hypothesis that the basal ganglia integrate vestibular and somatosensory information to provide an internal representation of postural vertical. Aim I1. Determine whether PD impairs use of somatosensory graviception as a postural reference. Exps. 3 and 4 will test the hypothesis that PD is associated with impaired use of slow, graviceptive somatosensory information, which normally provides a reference or 'set' point for postural orientation to vertical. Aim II1. Define how PD impairs movement-related kinesthetic information for compensatory stepping. Exp 5 and 6 will test the hypothesis that impaired kinesthesia from the legs and falling body results in increased dependence on vision for accurate compensatory stepping to recover equilbrium. Effective rehabilitation of balance disorders requires a better understanding of how kinesthetic information is used for joint alignment, postural verticality, postural orientation, and control of postural equilibrium responses.