BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Neurocognitive Aging and Behavior
Volume 17 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2025.1583447
Impact of Sensory Organization Tasks on Prefrontal Cortex Activity in Older Women: A Comparative fNIRS Study of Osteoarthritis and Healthy Aging
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Physical Therapy, College of Health Professions and Human Services, Kean University, Union, NJ, United States
- 2Department of Kinesiology, San Jose State University, San Jose, California, United States
- 3Department of Biomedical and Translation Sciences,Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States
- 4Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States
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Introduction: Osteoarthritis (OA), a prevalent musculoskeletal condition, is associated with an increased risk of falls. Maintaining posture relies on visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive inputs, but these systems can be compromised due to aging or disease, heightening fall risk. Such impairments may result from neuromuscular decline and reduced cognitive or visuospatial processing abilities. This study aimed to investigate prefrontal cortical (PFC) activation patterns during clinical sensory organization tasks (SOT) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in older women with OA and healthy controls (HOA). We hypothesized that PFC activation would increase as SOT conditions became more challenging, but that increases would be limited in OA, relative to HOA, given a decreased attentional capacity due to chronic pain. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 10 women with OA (65.7 ± 3.01 years) and 11 HOA (66.0 ± 4.86 years). Baseline cognitive and motor assessments preceded three trials of six SOT conditions. Results: Significant differences between groups in BMI, WOMAC pain score, repeated chair stand, and TUG scores were found (p < 0.001). Linear mixed-model analysis revealed significant effects of condition (CND; p < 0.001), trial (TR; p < 0.0001), and interactions between CND*TR (p < 0.01) and Cohort*CND (p < 0.01) on PFC activation. Discussion: In conclusion, both groups demonstrated increased PFC activation with task difficulty. However, OA participants exhibited diminished capacity to recruit additional attentional resources compared to HOA, emphasizing the need for further research with larger cohorts to elucidate these findings.
Keywords: Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Prefrontal Cortex, Osteoarthritis, Sensory organization task, balance
Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 19 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bishnoi, Hu and Hernandez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Alka Bishnoi, Department of Physical Therapy, College of Health Professions and Human Services, Kean University, Union, NJ, United States
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