Walking and balance are commonly impaired with age and neurological disorders (e.g. Parkinson's, Stroke, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, dementia etc.), but the underlying mechanisms involved remain unclear. Many cortical and sub-cortical brain regions are involved in gait and balance, but the majority of evidence is derived from static (lying down) testing using imaging techniques, such as fMRI, where assays of gait and balance must be used (e.g. mental imagery, virtual reality etc.) which may not represent brain activity during actual walking or balance tasks.
In recent years, technological progression has led to the development of increasingly robust mobile imaging techniques, such as fNIRS and EEG, which allow recording of brain activity during actual walking and balance tasks within a range of environments. We are interested in how the brain controls walking and balance, and how this declines with age or neurological dysfunction, as greater understanding will allow the development of tailored and individual interventions to support independent living for longer.
The aim of the present Research Topic is to encourage conversation between basic and applied researchers to improve the current frameworks used to study the networks and the phenomenology of walking and balance issues with aging and neurological conditions, such as Parkinson's disease, Stroke, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, dementia etc. We encourage researchers to contribute original papers, review articles, and opinion papers, as well as other types of contributions supported by Frontiers.
Researchers involved in fundamental and clinical studies using neurophysiological and mobile neuroimaging tools are encouraged to contribute to this Research Topic.
This Research Topic welcomes research using all mobility neuroimaging techniques (e.g. fNIRS, EEG etc.) in neurological (e.g. Parkinson's disease, Stroke, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, dementia etc.) and healthy populations, as well as animal models, particularly including, but not limited to the following:
1) Mobile neuroimaging techniques and evaluations in improving early diagnoses and differential diagnoses of age-related or neurological deficits;
2) Mobile neuroimaging techniques in monitoring disease progression, assessing and predicting the severity and progression of neurological conditions;
3) Mobile neuroimaging markers for identifying age-related or neurological functional issues
4) Improvement and refinement of mobile neuroimaging techniques, e.g. multimodal approaches, machine-learning based approaches;
5) Therapeutic studies, clinical trials, case reports including pharmacological/non-pharmacological interventions, rehabilitation and evaluating treatment effects- using mobile neuroimaging;
6) Review articles that describe the current state of the art in mobile neuroimaging research in aging and neurological conditions are especially welcome.
We encourage researchers with different backgrounds and expertise to contribute interdisciplinary studies dealing with the above mentioned (and similar) topics. Therefore, contributions of multi-disciplinary research teams are welcome
Keywords: walking, balance, cortical activity, EEG, fNIRS
Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
