Kessler Foundation Scientist Awarded $600,000 to Improve Gait and Balance in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment
Kiran Karunakaran, PhD, leads NIDILRR-funded study utilizing virtual reality for cognitive-motor training
East Hanover, NJ – December 16, 2024 – Kiran Karunakaran, PhD, research scientist in the Center for Mobility and Rehabilitation Engineering and director of the Balance Assessment and Training Laboratory at Kessler Foundation, has been awarded a three-year grant for $599,998 from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). The funding will support her research on using cognitive, integrated motor training to improve gait and balance and reduce falls in older adults with mild cognitive impairment. The study is in collaboration with Sergei Adamovich, PhD, and Soha Saleh, PhD, of New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, respectively.
Falls are the second leading cause of unintentional injury deaths worldwide. Older adults with mild cognitive impairment are at a heightened risk of falls, with potentially graver outcomes. The goal of this study is to improve balance and gait to reduce fall risk and facilitate improved quality of life and healthy aging through novel, personalized, cognitive-integrated motor training.
“Aging and cognitive impairment affect the sensorimotor function, leading to balance and gait deficits, including decreased walking speed, control and coordination. Ultimately, these impairments lead to falls and limited community participation,” explained Dr. Karunakaran. “Evidence suggests that training programs targeting motor and cognition together may be a better approach. Our objective is to increase the cognitive effort required to perform motor tasks in a game-playing setting using virtual reality and/or mixed reality (VR/MR) to improve functional gait and balance in older adults with mild cognitive impairment.”
The study comprehensively compares the effects of four weeks of personalized cognitive-motor VR/MR standard-of-care training using functional, biomechanical, neurophysiological, cognitive, physical activity, and community ambulation measures.
About National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR)
NIDILRR’s mission is to generate new knowledge and to promote its effective use to improve the abilities of individuals with disabilities to perform activities of their choice in the community, and to expand society’s capacity to provide full opportunities and accommodations for its citizens with disabilities. Across NIDILRR’s agenda, the central focus is on the whole person with a disability, whose ability to function and quality of life are dependent on the complex interactions among personal, societal, and environmental factors. NIDILRR plays a unique role in that its target population includes all disability types and all age groups. Whereas other federal research entities fund prevention, cure, and acute rehabilitation research, NIDILRR also invests in rehabilitation research that is tied more closely to longer-term outcomes, such as independence, community participation, and employment. For more information, visit NIDILRR.
