Age-Related Changes in Muscle Coupling: Focus on Sarcopenic Elderly

Aging and sarcopenia are associated with progressive declines in muscle decoupling, increasing the risk of falls and postural instability in older individuals. This study investigates the impact of these factors on muscular coordination, focusing on muscle coupling and information transfer. Surface electromyography (sEMG) data were recorded from twenty young and twenty elderly adults during a squat exercise, in the rectus femoris and biceps femoris. Normalized Mutual Information and Transfer Entropy were computed to quantify changes in muscle activation, coupling, and intermuscular communication. The results revealed significant age-related differences in intermuscular coupling, with elderly individuals showing lower values for the metrics computed. This decrease was further exacerbated in participants with sarcopenia, highlighting its detrimental impact on muscular efficiency. These findings suggest that aging and sarcopenia lead to adaptive but insufficient changes in muscular coordination, that could result in decreased balance and increased fall risk.Clinical Relevance - This provides a deeper insight into the effect of muscle decoupling due to age.