Sensorimotor function associated with mild cognitive impairment

 

Margaret Yekutiel wrote a whole book about this in 2001, 'Sensory Re-Education of the Hand After Stroke'.

Of course, your competent? doctor put together somatosensory protocols from this earlier research a long time ago to prevent cognitive impairment, right? Oh no, you DON'T have a functioning stroke doctor, do you? Too bad, it's your problem to solve since your stroke hospital board of directors is fucking incompetent in running their hospital! 25 years of incompetence! WOW, that's got to be a record for staying incompetent!

I bet your doctor isn't competent enough to get this research going in stroke subjects!

Sensorimotor function associated with mild cognitive impairment

Key takeaways:

• The links between sensory and motor impairments and mild cognitive impairment remain poorly understood.
• These associations persisted across two large cross-sectional cohorts.

Higher sensorimotor function was associated with reduced likelihood of mild cognitive impairment in two cohorts of older individuals, according to findings published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

“Identifying precursors to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) — the transitional stage between unimpaired cognition and dementia — is a public health priority,” Amal A. Wanigatunga, PhD, MPH, FACSM, assistant professor of epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues, wrote.

Data derived from Wanigatunga AA, et al. Alz & Dem. 2026;doi:10.1002/alz.71332.

The potential links between sensory and motor impairments and MCI remain poorly understood, according to the researchers. “Their integrated contribution as a sensorimotor construct remains underexplored,” they wrote.

Wanigatunga and colleagues analyzed cross-sectional data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC; n = 880; 63,4% women) and Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA; n = 681; 56.8% women). The mean age of participants in the ARIC cohort was 78.9 years, while the mean age of the BLSA cohort was 74.4 years, according to the findings.

Eligibility criteria stipulated that individuals with stroke, Parkinson’s disease or dementia were excluded from the study.The researchers compiled a composite score for sensorimotor function that included variables such as hearing, vision, olfaction, balance, gait speed, and grip strength.

Assessment of participants in the ARIC cohort showed that 59% had unimpaired balance, while 71% had unimpaired walking speed, 65% had unimpaired strength and performance, and 61% demonstrated unimpaired handgrip strength. Sensory function data showed that 42% had unimpaired hearing, 27% reported unimpaired vision, and 84% reported unimpaired olfaction.

The researchers added that participants in the ARIC cohort demonstrated more unimpaired motor and sensory function prevalence than the BLSA cohort, including parameters of balance, upper extremities motor strength and vision.

Results showed that higher sensorimotor function carried an inverse association with MCI in individuals from both the ARIC cohort (OR = 0.53; 95% CI, 0.4–0.71) and the BLSA cohort (OR = 0.59; 95% CI, 0.43–0.81).

This trend persisted across adjusted analyses for age, race, sex, education and BMI in both cohorts. Moreover, morbidity and depressive symptoms also failed to reduce the significance of the associations.

“Sensorimotor function appears robustly related with MCI in a large sample of older adults,” Wanigatunga and colleagues concluded. “These findings highlight the potential value of incorporating sensorimotor assessments in early detection for cognitive decline.”