Physical Training Coupled with Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation Modulates Cortical Waves Decreasing the Likelihood of Falls in Adults Elderly with Fragility

Abstract

Background: Falls have been implicated as the second highest cause of disability and death in the old population across the world. Some studies have shown that physical exercise applied alone and/or combined with non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) may improve mental activity and motor functions reducing the frail and the likelihood of falls. In this research was investigated whether physical and mental exercises training (PMET) combined with the NIBS procedure would reduce better the likelihood of falls in adult’s elderly as compared to the PMET by itself. Methods: A rigorous previous selective procedure was used for selecting 57 frail elderly subjects who were later randomly separated into two groups one of which nominated as experimental (FEG) and the other the control group (FCG). The FEG group practiced physical and mental exercises adjointly to a method of non-invasive brain stimulation. The FCG group received the same physical and mental exercises program as the FEG group practiced, but did not pass by the non-invasive brain stimulation procedure. Electroencephalographic data, propensity for falls and reaction time were evaluated in a version of pre and post intervention comparisons. The obtained data were treated using ANOVA ONE WAY with Tukey's posterior test, Kruskal-Wallis followed by Dunn’s and Spearman's correlation, all with a significance of 5%. Results: The conjugation of the NIBS to physical and mental training promoted decrease of the propensity for falls, enhance the reaction time, and modulated, both, Alpha and SMR bands. If taken together, it can be assumed that this program, moreover, was also efficient to reduce the adult’s elderly of the experimental group their physical and mental frailty as indicated by their frailty test scores taken comparatively between the pre to the post intervention performances. Conclusion: It was concluded that the intervention program here proposed decreased the probability of falls in the adults elderly and being this benefit clearly correlated with cortical modulation of the Alpha and SMR waves and was also efficient to promote the enhancement of those individual’s capability to executive functions performance.