Falls are the leading cause of injury for adults age 65 and older, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For older adults, a fall can pose a serious risk and dramatically impact quality of life. Yet, efforts to address the problem remain insufficient. “The current state of fall prevention is not great,” says Douglas Martini, assistant professor of kinesiology in the UMass Amherst School of Public Health & Health Sciences.

“Working on balance or strengthening only ends up helping a small percentage of individuals, and we’re not sure if it’s because the strategies to prevent falls aren’t ideal, or if it’s because we’re implementing these strategies at an inappropriate time,” adds Martini. “So here, we’re trying to see if we can find something—whether it be cortical activity related or whether it be step adjustment biomechanics related—that is a better indicator of somebody who’s making that transition to a higher risk of falls.”

As subjects walk on a treadmill and interact with “stepping stones” on the ground before them, the researchers are studying activity in their brains, both in the prefrontal cortex—usually involved in walking—and the posterior parietal cortex, which plays a role in processing visual information. Ultimately, the researchers hope to identify those at greater risk of falling and determine how to help reduce that risk.

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