Nonextensive cutoff distributions of postural sway for the old and the young

We examine postural sway data using concepts of nonextensive thermostatistics. We show that nonextensive thermostatistical cutoff distributions fit approximately empirically observed distributions of postural sway data. We show that the index of nonextensivity of these cutoff distributions is larger for elderly subjects than for younger subjects. A preliminary interpretation of the nonextensivity parameter as a measure for explorative versus conservative behavior is given.     

Postural Sway during Local Vibratory Stimulation for Proprioception in Elderly Individuals with Pre-Sarcopenia

Objective: Many studies have demonstrated that the loss of muscle mass (LMM) poses a risk of postural instability in the elderly; however, few studies have shown how LMM decreases proprioception. In this study, we investigated the changes in postural sway among older individuals with LMM induced by application of a local vibratory stimulus. Method: We enrolled 64 older adults (mean age). Postural sway was measured while applying vibration stimuli of 30, 60, and 240 Hz to both the gastrocnemius and lumbar multifidus muscles. We also measured the relative proprioceptive weighting ratio (RPW) of postural sway. The patients were divided into LMM and non-LMM (NLMM) groups. The study subjects were compared in terms of their age, height, weight, body mass index (BMI), lower leg skeletal muscle mass index (LSMI), L4/5 lumbar multifidus cross-sectional area ratio, and RPW at 30, 60, and 240 Hz. Results: Subjects in the LMM group showed a significantly lower RPW at 60 Hz, LSMI, and BMI than did those in the NLMM group. Conclusions: Decrease in RPW with 60-Hz stimulation concerning the lower leg proprioception is a risk factor for LMM-associated postural instability in the elderly. Consequently, with respect to the gastrocnemius muscles proprioception in LMM, it is necessary to perform assessments using muscle spindle stimuli.     

Evaluation of the temporal structure of postural sway fluctuations based on a comprehensive set of analysis tools

The analysis of postural control has a long history. Traditionally, the amount of body sway is solely used as an index of postural stability. Although this leads to some extent to an effective evaluation of balance performance, the control mechanisms involved have not yet been fully understood. The concept of nonlinear dynamics suggests that variability in the motor output is not randomness but structure, providing the stimulus to reveal the functionality of postural sway. The present work evaluates sway dynamics by means of COP excursions in a quiet standing task versus a dual-task condition in three different test times (30, 60, 300 s). Besides the application of traditional methods–which estimate the overall size of sway–the temporal pattern of body sway was quantified via wavelet transform, multiscale entropy and fractal analysis. We found higher sensitivity of the structural parameters to modulations of postural control strategies and partly an improved evaluation of sway dynamics in longer recordings. It could be shown that postural control modifications take place on different timescales corresponding to the interplay of the sensory systems. A continued application of nonlinear analysis can help to better understand postural control mechanisms.     

The Effects of Comprehensive Exercise Program on the Adjustments of Standing Balance in Community-Dwelling Elderly Persons

The objective of this study was to assess the effect of comprehensive exercise program widely accepted as a community-based physical intervention for the prevention of falling in the elderly persons on their controlling standing balance. Twenty-six community-dwelling elderly persons (13 males and females; 69.8 ± 2.8 years old) participated in this study. Daily exercise was comprised of walking for more than 30 min, stretching, muscle strengthening and balance exercise without exercise equipments. The intervention was continued for three months. Indicators of standing balance related to static balance, dynamic balance and postural response were measured before and after the intervention. As an effect of the intervention on static balance, the sway of center of pressure (COP) in the static stance significantly increased. In the dynamic balance, significant improvements were observed in one leg standing time, the 10-m gait time, functional reach. Additionally, the maximal movable length of COP which subjects can move voluntarily to right and left significantly increased. In the postural response, the integrated electromyography (IEMG) induced by postural response for sudden postural perturbation significantly decreased in the lower leg muscles. Since less muscular activities were sufficient to maintain posture, it was suggested that postural response was elicited more efficiently following the intervention. This study suggested that the comprehensive exercise program, which has been widely introduced as community-based interventions for the prevention of falling, have extensive effects on the control of standing balance covering static balance, dynamic balance and postural response in the elderly persons.     

Aging Effects on the Structure Underlying Balance Abilities Tests

Balance impairment is one of the biggest risk factors for falls reducing inactivity, resulting in nursing care. Therefore, balance ability is crucial to maintain the activities of independent daily living of older adults. Many tests to assess balance ability have been developed. However, few reports reveal the structure underlying results of balance performance tests comparing young and older adults. Covariance structure analysis is a tool that is used to test statistically whether factorial structure fits data. This study examined aging effects on the factorial structure underlying balance performance tests. Participants comprised 60 healthy young women aged 22 ± 3 years (young group) and 60 community-dwelling older women aged 69 ± 5 years (older group). Six balance tests: postural sway, one-leg standing, functional reach, timed up and go (TUG), gait, and the EquiTest were employed. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that three clearly interpretable factors were extracted in the young group. The first factor had high loadings on the EquiTest, and was interpreted as ‘Reactive’. The second factor had high loadings on the postural sway test, and was interpreted as ‘Static’. The third factor had high loadings on TUG and gait test, and was interpreted as ‘Dynamic’. Similarly, three interpretable factors were extracted in the older group. The first factor had high loadings on the postural sway test and the EquiTest and therefore was interpreted as ‘Static and Reactive’. The second factor, which had high loadings on the EquiTest, was interpreted as ‘Reactive’. The third factor, which had high loadings on TUG and the gait test, was interpreted as ‘Dynamic’. A covariance structure model was applied to the test data: the second-order factor was balance ability, and the first-order factors were static, dynamic and reactive factors which were assumed to be measured based on the six balance tests. Goodness-of-fit index (GFI) of the models were acceptable (young group, GFI=0.931; older group, GFI=0.923). Static, dynamic and reactive factors relating to balance ability had loadings 0.21, 0.24, and 0.76 in the young group and 0.71, 0.28, and 0.43 in the older group, respectively. It is suggested that the common factorial structure of balance abilities were static, dynamic and reactive, and that for young people reactive balance ability was characterized and explained by balance ability, whereas for older people it was static balance ability.     

Acceptable range of speech level in noisy sound fields for young adults and elderly persons

The acceptable range of speech level as a function of background noise level was investigated on the basis of word intelligibility scores and listening difficulty ratings. In the present study, the acceptable range is defined as the range that maximizes word intelligibility scores and simultaneously does not cause a significant increase in listening difficulty ratings from the minimum ratings. Listening tests with young adult and elderly listeners demonstrated the following. (1) The acceptable range of speech level for elderly listeners overlapped that for young listeners. (2) The lower limit of the acceptable speech level for both young and elderly listeners was 65 dB (A-weighted) for noise levels of 40 and 45 dB (A-weighted), a level with a speech-to-noise ratio of +15 dB for noise levels of 50 and 55 dB, and a level with a speech-to-noise ratio of +10 dB for noise levels from 60 to 70 dB. (3) The upper limit of the acceptable speech level for both young and elderly listeners was 80 dB for noise levels from 40 to 55 dB and 85 dB or above for noise levels from 55 to 70 dB.     

Upright,correlated random walks: A statistical-biomechanics approach to the human postural control system

The task of maintaining erect stance involves a complex sensorimotor control system, the output of which can be highly irregular. Even when a healthy individual attempts to stand still, the center of gravity of his or her body and the center of pressure (COP) under his or her feet continually move about in an erratic fashion. In this study, we approach the problem of characterizing postural sway from the perspective of random-walk theory. Specifically, we analyze COP trajectories as one-dimensional and two-dimensional random walks. These analyses reveal that over short-term intervals of time during undisturbed stance the COP behaves as a positively correlated random walk, whereas over long-term intervals of time it resembles a negatively correlated random walk. We interpret this novel finding as an indication that during quiet standing the postural control system utilizes open-loop and closed-loop control schemes over short-term and long-term intervals, respectively. From this perspective, our approach, known as stabilogram-diffusion analysis, has the advantage that it leads to the extraction of COP parameters which can be directly related to the steady-state behavior and functional interaction of the neuromuscular mechanisms underlying the maintenance of erect stance. (c) 1995 American Institute of Physics.     

The effects of aging on the stapedius reflex thresholds.

The acoustic reflex thresholds for broadband noise and 500-, 1000-, and 2000-Hz activating signals were measured in a group of young normal hearing adults and a group of elderly normal hearing subjects. The results indicated that the acoustic reflex thresholds for tonal activating signals in the young subjects were similar to those in the elderly subjects. However, the acoustic stapedius reflex thresholds for broadband noise activating signals is significantly higher in the elderly subjects than in the young. These differences were explained in light of Bredburg's findings [Acta Otolaryngol. Suppl. 236, 1--135 (1968)] regarding degeneration of outer hair cells as a function of aging.     

Stochastic resonance in multi-scale bistable array

This Letter explores a new mechanism of stochastic resonance (SR) that is induced by the multi-scale noise decomposed from the input signal, which is promising in signal detection and processing under heavy background noise. The input signal is firstly decomposed to multi-scale signals by orthogonal wavelet transform. Then, the approximate signal, which contains the driving signal, is processed by an uncoupled parallel bistable array with the detailed signal of each scale as the internal noise. At last, a SR mechanism combining the effects of colored noise and array SR is proposed. The simulation results show that a high quality output signal can be obtained by the new mechanism. The proposed model is more adaptive to input signal with high noise intensity than single bistable SR system, which can be seen from the signal-to-noise ratio curves and average noise intensity curves.     

Noise amplification during supercontinuum generation in microstructure fiber

Supercontinua generated by femtosecond pulses launched in microstructure fiber can exhibit significant low-frequency (<1-MHz) amplitude noise on the output pulse train. We show that this low-frequency noise is an amplified version of the amplitude noise that is already present on the input laser pulse train. Through both experimental measurements and numerical simulations, we quantify the noise amplification factor and its dependence on the supercontinuum wavelength and on the energy and duration of the input pulse. Interestingly, the dependence differs significantly from that of the broadband white-noise component, which arises from amplification of the input laser shot noise.     

A multichannel shot noise approach to describe synaptic background activity in neurons

Systems driven by Poisson-distributed quantal inputs can be described as “shot noise” stochastic processes. This formalism can apply to neurons which receive a large number of Poisson-distributed synaptic inputs of similar quantal size. However, the presence of temporal correlations between these inputs destroys their quantal nature, and such systems can no longer be described by classical shot noise processes. Here, we show that explicit expressions for various statistical properties, such as the amplitude distribution and the power spectral density, can be deduced and investigated as functions of the correlation between input channels. The monotonic behavior of these expressions allows an one-to-one relation between temporal correlations and the statistics of fluctuations. Multi-channel shot noise processes, therefore, open a way to deduce correlations in input patterns by analyzing fluctuations in experimental systems. We discuss applications such as detecting correlations in networks of neurons from intracellular recordings of single neurons.     

Postural Complexity during Listening in Young and Middle-Aged Adults

Postural behavior has traditionally been studied using linear assessments of stability (e.g., center of pressure ellipse area). While these assessments may provide valuable information, they neglect the nonlinear nature of the postural system and often lead to the conflation of variability with pathology. Moreover, assessing postural behavior in isolation or under otherwise unrealistic conditions may obscure the natural dynamics of the postural system. Alternatively, assessing postural complexity during ecologically valid tasks (e.g., conversing with others) may provide unique insight into the natural dynamics of the postural system across a wide array of temporal scales. Here, we assess postural complexity using Multiscale Sample Entropy in young and middle-aged adults during a listening task of varying degrees of difficulty. It was found that middle-aged adults exhibited greater postural complexity than did young adults, and that this age-related difference in postural complexity increased as a function of task difficulty. These results are inconsistent with the notion that aging is universally associated with a loss of complexity, and instead support the notion that age-related differences in complexity are task dependent.     

Stochastic resonance in thermally activated reactions: Application to biological ion channels

At the molecular level many thermally activated reactions can be viewed as Poisson trains of events whose instantaneous rates are defined by the reaction activation barrier height and an effective collision frequency. When the barrier height depends on an external parameter, variation in this parameter induces variation in the event rate. Extending our previous work, we offer a detailed theoretical analysis of signal transduction properties of these reactions considering the external parameter as an input signal and the train of resulting events as an output signal. The addition of noise to the system input facilitates signal transduction in two ways. First, for a linear relationship between the barrier height and the external parameter the output signal power grows exponentially with the mean square fluctuation of the noise. Second, for noise of a sufficiently high bandwidth, its addition increases output signal quality measured as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The output SNR reaches a maximum at optimal noise intensity defined by the reaction sensitivity to the external parameter, reaction initial rate, and the noise bandwidth. We apply this theory to ion channels of excitable biological membranes. Based on classical results of Hodgkin and Huxley we show that open/closed transitions of voltage-gated ion channels can be treated as thermally activated reactions whose activation barriers change linearly with applied transmembrane voltage. As an experimental example we discuss our recent results obtained with polypeptide alamethicin incorporated into planar lipid bilayers.(c) 1998 American Institute of Physics.     

The interplay of thermal and pump fluctuations in stimulated Brillouin scattering

We present a experimental and theoretical investigation of spontaneously initiated stimulated Brillouin scattering in which the interplay of two independent noise sources (thermal and pump) can be studied by controlling the relative importance of each source. We vary the pump noise by adding a controlled amount of Gaussian noise to the input pulses, and we control the contribution of the thermal noise by examining the energy statistics of both entire scattered pulses and of temporal slices of the scattered pulses. We show that the energy of the whole Stokes pulses follow a Gaussian distribution but that the energy of the Stokes pulse slices do not.     

A scheme for Sagnac-effect quantum enhancement with Fock state light input

Sagnac effect enhancement can improve optical gyro precision. For a certain input intensity, we suggest that the other input port of beam splitter(BS) should be fed with some quantum light to break through shot noise limit(SNL) to improve Sagnac effect without increasing radiation-pressure noise(NRP). We design a Sagnac effect quantum enhancement criterion(SQEC) to judge whether some quantum light can enhance Sagnac effect and present a Sagnac effect enhancement scheme that utilizing Fock state light and parity measurement technique to extract the output phase. The results of the theoretical analysis show that the maximum sensitivity can be reached at θ = 0, and the phase precision can break through SNL and even achieve Heisenberg limit(HL). When the Fock state average photon number n is far less than coherent state, the minimum measurable angular rate is improved with (2n+1)~(1/2) times, which can deduce shot noise and increase NRP little.     

Heterodyne detection enhanced by quantum correlation

Heterodyne detectors as phase-insensitive(PI) devices have found important applications in precision measurements such as space-based gravitational-wave(GW) observation. However, the output signal of a PI heterodyne detector is supposed to suffer from signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) degradation due to image band vacuum and imperfect quantum efficiency. Here, we show that the SNR degradation can be overcome when the image band vacuum is quantum correlated with the input signal.We calculate the noise figure of the detector and prove the feasibility of heterodyne detection with enhanced noise performance through quantum correlation. This work should be of great interest to ongoing space-borne GW signal searching experiments.     

Transmission of noise coded versus additive signals through a neuronal ensemble

Neuronal populations receive signals through temporally inhomogeneous spike trains which can be approximated by an input consisting of a time dependent mean value (additive signal) and noise with a time dependent intensity (noise coded signal). We compare the linear response of an ensemble of model neurons to these signals. Our analytical solution for the mean activity demonstrates the high efficiency of the transmission of a noise coded signal in a broad frequency band. For both kinds of signal we show that the transmission by the ensemble reveals stochastic resonance as well as a nonmonotonous dependence on the driving frequency.     

White matter hyperintensities and dynamics of postural control

Background

White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) on MRI have been associated with age, cardiovascular risk factors and falls in the elderly. This study evaluated the relationship between WMHs and dynamics of postural control in older adults without history of falls.

Methods

We studied 76 community-living subjects without history of falls (age 64.5±7.3 years). Brain and WMH volume calculations and clinical rating were done on fluid-attenuation inversion recovery (FLAIR) and MP-RAGE MR images on 3 T. Balance was assessed from the center of pressure displacement using the force platform during 3 min of quiet standing using traditional and dynamic measures (using stabilogram-diffusion analysis). Gait speed was measured from 12-min walk.

Results

Age-adjusted periventricular and focal WMHs were associated with changes in certain dynamic balance measures, including reduced range of postural sway in anteroposterior direction (fronto-temporal WMHs, P=.045; parieto-occipital WMHs, P=.009) and more irregular long-term mediolateral fluctuations (P=.046). Normal walking speed was not affected by WMHs.

Conclusions

Periventricular and focal WMHs affect long-term dynamics of postural control, which requires engagement of feedback mechanisms, and may contribute to mobility decline in the elderly.     

Information flow in sensory neurons

Summary Recent experiments show that the neural codes at work in a wide range of creatures share some common features. At first sight, these observations seem unrelated. However, we show that all of these features of the code arise naturally in a simple threshold crossing model when we choose the threshold to maximize the transmitted information. This maximization process requires neural adaptation to not only the d.c. signal level, as in conventional light and dark adaptation (for example), but also to the statistical structure of the signal and noise distributions. Interestingly, if we fix the threshold level, we can observe a peak in the transmitted information at a finite value of the input signal-to-noise ratio. However, when we allow the threshold to adapt to the statistical structure of the signal and noise, the transmitted information is always monotonically increasing with increasing input signal-to-noise ratio. Paper presented at the International Workshop ?Fluctuations in Physics and Biology: Stochastic Resonance, Signal Processing and Related Phenomena?, Elba, 5–10 June 1994.