Aging is associated with reduced muscle mass and strength. This loss of muscle mass has been termed sarcopenia, meaning “poverty of flesh”. The loss of muscle mass itself is insufficient to account for strength and power decrements during senescence, which has led to the introduction of the term ‘dynapenia’ to denote […]
Falls are common among people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Many clinical tests such as the Berg Balance Scale and the Timed Up and Go or laboratory-based assessments such as posturography involving moving force-plates, have been used to estimate fall risks in MS. But, these tests are limited to measures of functional balance, […]
Exercise induced muscle fatigue is a common experience for healthy people. It involves multiple changes in the nervous system such as changes at the spinal and supraspinal level (central fatigue) and changes in the muscle itself (peripheral fatigue). During a fatiguing maximal effort, the ability of the nervous system to […]
Balance exercise programs are an effective way to prevent falls in older people. Exercises are mostly focused on controlling the center of mass while reducing the base of support, for example by standing on one leg. Balance control however, also requires adaptive responses that would require a person to either […]
Nerve cells that innervate the biceps muscle become more (or less) excitable depending on the posture of the arm (Mogk et al. 2014). This has been shown by stimulating the motor area of people’s brains (the motor cortex) and measuring the size of responses in the muscles when the arm […]
Senses such as sight, touch or hearing should tell us how things are – no more and no less, because our actions, and ultimately our survival, depend on them. However, senses cannot afford the luxury of being confused but have to ‘guess’ how things are even when sensory input is […]
A progressive reduction in limb muscle mass is characteristic of advancing age, usually referred to as sarcopenia (Rosenberg, 1997). This loss of muscle mass and strength is likely to contribute to the general loss of mobility and risk of falling, a major concern for the elderly. These problems have been […]
Regular exercise is well demonstrated to relieve pain in people with chronic pain (Busch et al, 2007) but exactly how exercise helps is not known. A growing body of evidence shows people with chronic pain who are fitter and more physically active experience less pain. Similar associations are apparent in […]
Brain zapping, or non-invasive brain stimulation, in all its forms, has hit the mainstream. You can even watch a YouTube video about how to build your very own not-approved-for-human-use transcranial magnetic stimulation machine! Light-heartedness aside, the therapeutic benefits of brain stimulation are regularly highlighted in the news, and the number […]
Motoneurons are the final common pathway for every movement and muscle contraction. Located in the spinal cord, these neurons constantly receive and integrate thousands of tiny electrical signals from various parts of the central and peripheral nervous system. The end result: an action potential that travels down their axon and […]
