Cognitive Training and Mobility: Implications for Falls Prevention

Abstract

Over the past two decades, accumulating evidence indicates that cognitive capacity becomes increasingly implicated in postural stability with healthy aging, as sig-naled by several scholarly reviews [1-3], as well as many of the chapters in this volume. In this chapter, we first consider the assumptions underlying the general strategy of strengthening cognitive capacity to improve mobility by reviewing the evidence of cognitive involvement in gait and posture in old age. We next discuss the extant literature on cognitive training, with special consideration of specificity of training, transfer effects, and neural plasticity in aging. We then review the growing literature on cognitive training and its impact on gait, balance, and falls.