A recent study shows that older people can improve their sensorimotor performance through targeted training. Neuronal resources of an ageing brain can be optimally stimulated through regular, coordinated balance training. Neuroscientists at Otto von Guericke University Magedeburg have conducted an interdisciplinary study with people aged 60 and over.

Magdeburg, 14 October 2024: ‘Although our brain has natural performance limits in terms of memory, attention and sensorimotor skills, we can shift some of these limits through training,’ explains Professor Dr Marco Taubert from the Chair of Exercise Science, Cognition and Movement at the University of Magdeburg and head of the study. This is socially relevant, as deficits in balance performance in older people are often associated with an increased risk of falls and the associated increase in mortality, the sports scientist continues.

In the research project ‘Dynamic modelling of training-induced and performance-optimising mobilisation of neural resources’, jointly led with Dr Gabriel Ziegler from the Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research at the University of Magdeburg, an interdisciplinary team is investigating the effects of different training approaches on the brain performance of the test subjects in two studies. A total of 90 participants between the ages of 60 and 75 underwent weekly balance training with different task requirements: Underchallenge, optimal challenge and overchallenge. Over the course of the training, images of the brain were taken using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in order to obtain information about possible structural and functional changes. ‘The initial results on 30 test subjects show greater effects on motor performance in the training group with optimal task demands compared to the training groups with under- or overload, as well as a tendency towards better cognitive performance,’ says the sports scientist. The results of the main study on 60 test subjects are currently being evaluated and will provide information on how the optimised balance training affects brain structure and function, Taubert explains further.

‘It is already known that balance training can cause changes in brain structure and function,’ explains Prof Marco Taubert. ‘However, we wanted to test whether balance training adapted to the person’s current level of performance can stimulate the brain to make structural changes particularly quickly or strongly.’

According to Taubert, the knowledge now gained could help to develop measures in the future that successfully mobilise the brain’s reserve capacity against diseases such as dementia. ‘If we understand the adaptation processes in our brain better, we can develop tailor-made training programmes in the long term that support our brain throughout our lives and thus maintain or improve our health and quality of life.’

The research project is part of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 1436: Neuronal Resources of Cognition. More than 40 scientists at the Magdeburg site and beyond are investigating the potential of the human brain and the neurobiological processes that prevent it from realising this potential in a total of 22 individual projects. The aim is to improve memory performance in general and to understand the effects of disruptive factors and ‘hidden’ disease processes in order to overcome them and mobilise the reserve mechanisms available to the brain.

Further information:

https://sfb1436.de/ Further information on the Collaborative Research Centre
https://www.taubertlab.com/ Further information:

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