# Environmental Challenges and the Aging Brain: Implications for Community Mobility

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2020 · $20,054

## Abstract

Mobility limitations are common and costly. Community mobility is an individual’s movement that
occurs outside the home and occurs within complex environments. Therefore, the interactions of
an individual with the environment must be considered to fully understand how mobility
limitations arise. The association of subclinical central nervous system (CNS) abnormalities with
mobility in older adults free from neurologic disease is beginning to be established but is
typically not studied in relation to environmental challenges. The first aim of this proposal is to
characterize the relation between CNS characteristics, peripheral contributors, and community-
based environmental challenges in a group of community-dwelling older adults. The second aim
will develop and validate lab-based environmental challenges that reflect performance in actual
community environments. This proposal incorporates several innovations that will allow me to
better assess how the aging brain affects negotiation of real-world environmental challenges: 1)
use of community-based environmental challenges in the lab to test community mobility 2) use
of wearable, wireless functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for assessment of functional
brain changes while participants are walking and 3) a multimodal neuroimaging approach that
combines functional measurements from fNIRS with structural imaging. To successfully
complete this research, I propose four training aims: 1) Acquire skills in measurement of gait in
the lab and the real world; 2) Become an expert in use of near-infrared spectroscopy in mobility
research; 3) Acquire advanced skills in in instrument development and testing; and 4) Continue
to develop leadership and professional skills. These training aims will help me to achieve my
immediate goals of establishing the relation between brain aging and limitations in community
mobility as well as my long term goals of better understanding the contributors to community
mobility in order to inform future intervention strategies. This research will establish the
association between CNS function and negotiation of community-based environmental
challenges, will establish the validity of tools for use in future studies, and will provide evidence
towards novel intervention strategies to improve community mobility of older adults.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10117714
- **Project number:** 3K01AG053431-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Andrea L Rosso
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $20,054
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2016-09-01 → 2021-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10117714

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10117714, Environmental Challenges and the Aging Brain: Implications for Community Mobility (3K01AG053431-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10117714. Licensed CC0.

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