Research Project Doctoral Candidate 09
The relationship between cognition and gait variability in aging and FND patients
Fellow
Host Institution
Radboud University, Donders Centre for Cognition
Supervisor
Prof. Dr. Noël Keysers
Project description
Gait and balance impairments represent significant drivers of reduced mobility and increased fall risk in aging populations and individuals with motor control disorders. Despite the clinical relevance of locomotor variability, the precise electrocortical mechanisms that govern real-time gait adaptation, and how psychological state factors like threat or arousal modulate these processes remain poorly understood. Understanding these central neural dynamics is essential for designing targeted rehabilitation strategies that exploit functional motor variability.
This PhD project aims to map the electrocortical signatures of locomotor adaptation and evaluate the impact of elevated arousal on motor learning using high-density mobile brain imaging and 3D motion capture. First, continuous 128-channel EEG and motion capture will be used during split-belt treadmill walking in healthy older adults to determine how spectral power modulations in frontal, sensorimotor, and parietal regions track step length asymmetry across adaptation and washout phases. Subsequently, an immersive Augmented Reality threat paradigm will be integrated to test how pre-perturbation arousal influences physiological stress markers, cortical activation, and the rate of gait adaptation. Together, these studies will clarify the neural substrates of locomotor recalibration to inform translational therapy concepts for aging and motor control disorders (e.g. Functional Neurological Disease).
(Planned) Secondments
Aix-Marseille University