Laboratoire Motricité Humaine Éducation Sport Santé

Older adults rely increasingly on prior knowledge to make sense of their deteriorating representation of the visual world, but how this shapes scene perception and spatial reorientation remains unclear. To address this issue, 28 young and 25 older adults viewed artificially generated rooms either before or after learning the position of a goal hidden in an adjacent room. We manipulated both the number and the eccentricity of navigational affordances (i.e., open doors) to investigate the interaction between bottom-up scene features and top-down spatial knowledge. Consistent with previous findings, younger adults showed decreased performance as the number of open doors increased, but only after learning the goal position, indicating a top-down interaction with the automatic processing of affordances. Door eccentricity did not affect this interaction, suggesting our findings were not due to a distractor effect. In older adults, this interaction between prior spatial information and navigational affordances was markedly amplified: reaction times increased at twice the rate observed in younger adults. These findings show that prior spatial knowledge interacts with the automatic extraction of navigational affordances, and that this influence is markedly amplified with age. While prior knowledge helps stabilize perception when sensory processing becomes less reliable, it can also increase the processing time for complex scenes, particularly when multiple action possibilities are present. By revealing how aging shifts the balance between top-down and bottom-up mechanisms, these results refine models of age-related spatial navigation decline and highlight a trade-off whereby increased reliance on prior knowledge supports perception but can also slow interaction with complex environments.

The aim of this study was to compare hamstrings eccentric torque production and muscle activities during one maximal repetition of conventional unassisted (CNHE) and assisted (ANHE) Nordic Hamstring Exercise. Twelve participants randomly performed 5 different NHE variations at maximal intensity. We calculated maximal hamstring eccentric torque production (Tmax), torque time integral, root mean square at Tmax, and electromyography integral for 7 muscles during exercises. CNHE resulted in lower Tmax and torque time integral (P < .05) compared with ANHEs. Moreover, it exhibited lower electromyography integral for the biceps femoris, semitendinous, gastrocnemius lateralis, and gastrocnemius medialis (P < .05). Unilateral ANHE simulating the late-swing phase of the step cycle (ANHELSU) demonstrated greater Tmax compared with bilateral and unilateral ANHE (P < .01), whereas root mean square at Tmax was lower during ANHELSU than bilateral ANHE (P < .05). The increased eccentric torque production and higher muscle activities during ANHE could be attributed to greater muscle length at the end of the movements and a longer time under tension. Our results suggest that (1)ANHE increases hamstrings torque production and muscle activities of the knee flexors compared with CNHE, and (2)ANHELSU is the only variation specific to the injury kinematics that maximizes overall eccentric torque production.

Purpose: The EU funded Placemaking &amp; Sport project enabled sport organisations to rethink their sport and physical activity offers through placemaking and local community involvement. The project encouraged sport organisations and towns in Denmark, France, Spain, Malta, and Italy to explore new ways of engaging communities in an active lifestyle to bring public space to life. Project Description. Development and Implementation: Coordinated by ISCA, the project paired grassroots organisations with city representatives – Azur Sport Santé and the City of Nice (France), UISP and UISP Matera (Italy), MOVE Malta and Sport Malta (Malta), DGI and the City of Copenhagen (Denmark), DES and City of Valencia (Spain). The project showcased how, by engaging the local communities’ needs, movement can thrive in unexpected spaces, promoting healthier and more connected cities. After 18 months of experimentation in diverse cities across Europe, various placemaking methodologies were piloted with the focus on engaging local citizens in decision-making and together transforming spaces into active thriving public places. This included teenagers in Italy, elderly in Denmark, schools, sport and nature organisations in Malta, neighbourhood associations in Spain, and street art associations &amp; museums in France. Through physical activity and play, but also sharing memories, rekindling childhood connections to parks and squares, inventing games, and telling stories, the transformative power of placemaking in creating more vibrant and inclusive communities was showcased. Dissemination: The dissemination efforts were focusing on the storytelling of the local activities that were amplified through podcasts and videos. A follow-up initiative in France has already been funded to continue developing their pilot. The learning materials and resources are collected on https://placemaking.isca.org to further build capacities of the sector. Conclusions: With urban areas facing a shortage of sport facilities, the project demonstrated how squares and parks could serve as accessible venues for physical activity. It sought to reshape the perception of where and how people move while keeping the community at the centre of it through diverse engagement activities. It promoted flexible, inclusive spaces that encourage walking, socialising, and informal recreation ensuring that movement becomes a natural part of everyday life for people of all ages and abilities. Keywords: Participation, placemaking, physical activity, sport, urban development

How do we translate information from a spatial map to action in our immediate surroundings? Despite the widespread use of various tools for orientation, from paper maps to GPS, this fundamental question remains unanswered in our understanding of human spatial navigation. To investigate this, we implemented a perspective-taking task in immersive virtual reality combined with mobile EEG, aiming to disentangle the neurocognitive processes involved. Thirty-eight young adults were presented with a virtual 2D map in which we manipulated both the perspective shift and the physical angle of rotation required to align with a target, as well as the congruency between these two variables. Behaviourally, angular error during pointing increased slightly and linearly with perspective shift. However, the relationship between rotation angle and accuracy revealed a non-linear pattern, with better performance around the antero-posterior bodily-axis. Regarding congruency, angular error increased for incongruent trials, but only when the perspective-taking angle exceeded 90 degrees. At the neural level, activity in the retrosplenial complex (RSC) revealed a sequential organization with alpha-band modulation during perspective shift, followed by beta-band activity reflecting preparation for the required physical rotation. In addition, incongruency between perspective-taking and physical rotation increased beta activity in the left temporo-parietal junction (lTPJ). Overall, these findings demonstrate the value of immersive virtual environments to investigate the neural correlates of real-world navigation and the complexity of perspective-taking mechanisms.

Exergames (EG) are interactive video games that require physical activity and use gamification to make exercise more engaging. EG interventions demonstrated various benefits for older adults including improved mental health, quality of life, and a reduced risk of falls. Enhanced cognition is considered one of the principal targets driving these benefits. This systematic review aimed to identify the neurobiological effects of EG interventions in healthy older adults and those with neurocognitive disorders. We systematically searched major databases for studies from inception up until June 2024 and included 12 reports. Findings revealed that EG interventions induced structural and functional brain changes, accompanied by improved cognitive and motor performance, as well as neuroplastic adaptations, such as elevated BDNF levels and enhanced neurovascular coupling, in healthy older adults. Similar findings were reported in older adults with neurocognitive disorders, though only in two studies, one showing increased frontal and temporal activity at rest, and the other reporting an increase in brain volume. Notably, methodological limitations in some studies, particularly those involving neuroimaging, underline the preliminary nature of the findings. Furthermore, the small number of studies included, especially those focusing on older adults with neurocognitive disorders, who often present with diverse clinical profiles, emphasizes the need for further research to validate these encouraging but currently low-evidence findings.

Spatial navigation abilities decline with age, affecting older adults' quality of life. Recent studies revealed a specific impairment in landmark-based reorientation, linked to changes in scene-selective brain regions' activity. While functional magnetic resonance imaging studies suggest increased activity in these regions in older adults, more detailed investigation of brain dynamics associated with visuospatial processing is warranted. We analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related spectral perturbations recorded from electrodes over scene-selective regions. Twenty-eight young adults and 28 older adults performed a desktop-based reorientation task using objects as landmarks, contrasted with a passive scene perception task. Older adults showed reduced reorientation performance along with increased latencies of early cortical markers of visual processing in scene-selective regions, suggesting that navigational deficits may result from delayed processing of visuospatial information. Decreasing landmark size, and thus increasing perceptual difficulty, impaired performance in both age groups, but only resulted in a delayed P1 component in older adults, suggesting an age-related delayed early discrimination of smaller landmarks. Interestingly, by contrasting the reorientation task with a passive scene perception task, we were able to dissociate the age-related effect over the perception and the use of objects as landmarks. Our results suggest that most of the differences reported for neural markers of reorientation were already present in a passive scene perception task, highlighting the importance of accounting for age-related differences in scene perception when investigating deficits in visuospatial reorientation. When these differences in passive perception were accounted for using regression-based ERP, our results indicated that young adults showed increased neural markers of attentional resources allocated to the reorientation task, as indicated by an increased P1 amplitude. On the other hand, older adults exhibited increased N1 amplitude associated with theta activity during reorientation, suggesting that they might rely on more extensive neural resources to process visual objects, only when using them as landmarks. These findings emphasize the need to dissociate age-related changes in early perceptual processing from those affecting higher-order visuo-spatial mechanisms and suggest that age-related differences in scene processing may underpin some navigational deficits in older adults.

Gait analysis is essential for evaluating walking patterns and identifying functional limitations. Traditional marker-based motion capture tools are costly, time-consuming, and require skilled operators. This study evaluated a 3D Marker-less Motion Capture (3D MMC) system using pose and depth estimations with the gold-standard Motion Capture (MOCAP) system for measuring hip and knee joint angles during gait at three speeds (0.7, 1.0, 1.3 m/s). Fifteen healthy participants performed gait tasks which were captured by both systems. The 3D MMC system demonstrated good accuracy (LCC > 0.96) and excellent inter-session reliability (RMSE < 3°). However, moderate-to-high accuracy with constant biases was observed during specific gait events, due to differences in sample rates and kinematic methods. Limitations include the use of only healthy participants and limited key points in the pose estimation model. The 3D MMC system shows potential as a reliable tool for gait analysis, offering enhanced usability for clinical and research applications.

Abstract The organised sport setting is a key context for health promotion, but it can also be associated with risky behaviours. Sports coaches play a crucial role in supporting the health of sport participants but often lack the resources and support to do so. This paper proposes a guide to help coaches become health promoters by defining their key actions in line with the Health Promoting Sports Club model. An embedded mixed-method study with a QUAL (qual) design was used, where 15 experts took part in 5 meetings and 299 coaches provided input through an online survey. Four steps were carried out: (1) defining the health-promoting sports coach and key action principles, (2) co-constructing progression stages using the settings-based approach, (3) identifying key actions for promoting health in different coaching moments, and (4) developing long-term intervention components. A definition of the health-promoting sports coach was produced, and eight key action principles have been identified, divided into three dimensions: connection with the system, adoption of a coaching philosophy, and focus on participants. Five stages of progression for integrating health promotion into coaching have been established, ranging from risk prevention to a global approach involving the entire sports system. Specific actions for each moment of coaching (before, during and after training, and competition) have been determined, such as ‘monitoring the physical, mental and social health of participants’ or ‘ensuring a cool-down, stretching, shower and proper eating after competition’. Finally, long-term intervention components to support the implementation of these actions in practice have been developed based on what coaches are already doing, the skills they possess and the five stages of progression. This paper enabled the development of a guide to help sports coaches promote health by identifying concrete actions and short- and long-term interventions, whilst making links with the health promoting sports club model. It broadens the scope of coaching by incorporating health principles, while emphasising the need to adapt to the environment and context of the club. This work calls for future research to test the effectiveness and feasibility of these approaches in various sporting environments.