Falls in people with Alzheimer’s Disease: Exploring the role of inhibitory control

People with dementia fall at twice the rate of their age-matched peers, often with more serious consequences, yet the underlying reasons remain poorly understood. This narrative review explores relevant psychological, physiological and neuroimaging studies to discuss whether diminished inhibitory control contributes to poor balance and falls in people with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), the most common form of dementia. Inhibitory control, a component of executive function, plays a vital role in regulating attention and suppressing inappropriate impulses. Although objective tests of inhibitory control are not routinely used in clinical settings, research suggests inhibitory control declines early, and progressively, in AD. Postural tasks that engage inhibitory control can improve the accuracy of distinguishing fallers from non-fallers beyond known factors. Neuroimaging studies link the prefrontal cortex to both inhibitory and postural control, and this region exhibits neuronal loss early in AD. Thus, emerging evidence suggests that accurately assessing inhibitory control could not only inform falls risk but also aid AD detection.