Improved subjective sleep quality in older adults by enhancing the GABAergic system in the sensorimotor cortex.

Overview

1. Department of Neurosciences and Movement Science, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
2. Laboratory for functional and metabolic imaging (LIFMET), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
3. CIBM Centre for Biomedical Imaging, Lausanne, Switzerland
4. Animal Imaging and Technology, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
5. Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
6. Institute of Physics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

Abstract

Abstract: Sleep disturbances affect nearly half of all adults aged 60 and above, reducing quality of life and contributing to various health issues. While pharmacological treatments enhancing GABAergic activity can improve sleep, they often have adverse side effects. Given that balance training has been shown to enhance GABAergic inhibition in the sensorimotor cortex, we hypothesized that it could serve as a non‐pharmacological intervention to improve sleep quality in older adults. In this study, 36 adults aged 64 to 81 years either completed a three‐month balance training programme or served as controls. Before and after the three months, all participants underwent behavioural and neurophysiological measurements. Following a significant group × time interaction with repeated‐measures ANOVA, paired t tests revealed that the balance group experienced improved sleep quality assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire. However, objective sleep parameters assessed with polysomnography remained unchanged. Neuroimaging revealed increased GABA levels in the sensorimotor cortex (magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and enhanced sensorimotor functional connectivity (functional magnetic resonance imaging). Although intracortical inhibition (transcranial magnetic stimulation) during balancing and sleep did not show significant group × time interactions, individuals with greater increases in inhibition during sleep reported larger improvements in sleep quality. Regression analyses indicated that greater increases in functional connectivity were associated with larger improvements in subjective sleep quality, whereas greater increases in GABA levels were associated with smaller improvements. These findings suggest that balance training improves subjective sleep quality in older adults, possibly by restoring the GABAergic system in the sensorimotor cortex, offering an accessible and non‐pharmacological intervention for age‐related sleep disturbances.

Key points: Sleep disturbances are common in adults over 60, and medications that enhance GABAergic inhibition often cause unwanted side effects.

Previous research suggests that balance training can strengthen GABAergic inhibition in the sensorimotor cortex.

In this study, three months of balance training improved subjective sleep quality in older adults, while no changes were observed in objective sleep measures.

These improvements may be driven by enhanced GABAergic inhibition in the sensorimotor cortex, as reflected by increased functional connectivity and intracortical inhibition, two functional markers of GABAergic activity.

These findings highlight balance training as an accessible and multi‐beneficial intervention to promote sleep health in older adults.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

No file of the authors' code could be read here: it is described below, and read at its source.

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

Proposed by the machine: these links were found in the paper and verified at the source, without human review. The map will receive a Zenodo DOI once one of the paper's authors has validated it with their ORCID.

What the map holds:

• 1 repository of the authors' code, each at its verified commit, with its license and how the link was found in the paper;
• 0 scripts, each with its path and the digest of its content;
• no match between paragraphs and code yet;
• neither the text of the paper nor the code itself.

Its JSON (tracing-map.json) is deposited on Zenodo with its DOI once the map is validated.

Data

No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.

Data availability statement

The dataset analysed and the R script used for analysis are available online in Open Science Framework (OSF) at https://osf.io/t75vc/.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 2, 28 September 2026

• Publisher: — → Wiley

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 8 authors, 6 keywords, 12 MeSH terms, 1 funder, 96 references.

Cite

This paper

Scherrer, S., Egger, S., Liu, X., Wick, A. Z., Rasch, B., Xin, L., Lauber, B., & Taube, W. (2026). Improved subjective sleep quality in older adults by enhancing the GABAergic system in the sensorimotor cortex. The Journal of physiology, 604(15), 6506-6546. https://doi.org/10.1113/jp290164

The tracing map gets a citation of its own once an author has validated it and it has a DOI.

Similar papers

The papers with a page that share the most with this one: the tools found in their code, their categories, datasets, cited references and authors, the rarest counting most.

[1] doi:10.1038/s41398-026-04072-9 [code]

Myo-inositol concentration in the medial prefrontal cortex is associated with changes in brain white matter microstructure in early psychosis.

Journal: Translational psychiatry

In common: systems, author Lijing Xin

[2] doi:10.1093/braincomms/fcag303 [code]

Sleep spindles are linked to white matter connectivity differentially in older adults with and without cognitive impairment.

Journal: Brain communications

In common: systems, 4 references

[3] doi:10.1093/brain/awaf443 [code]

Cellular signatures underlying functional resilience in presymptomatic frontotemporal dementia.

Journal: Brain : a journal of neurology

In common: fMRI, 4 references

[4] doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0729-25.2026 [code]

Human Cerebral Blood Flow Activity with Diurnal Variation Differentially Correlated with the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus.

Journal: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience

In common: systems, fMRI, 3 references

[5] doi:10.1002/hbm.70629

Characterising the Diffusion Functional Signature of Negative BOLD With Interleaved TMS-fMRI in the Human Brain.

Journal: Human brain mapping

In common: other, systems, fMRI, 2 references

[6] doi:10.1162/imag.a.1252 [code]

Does the brain's E:I balance really shape long-range temporal correlations? Lessons learned from 3T MRI.

Journal: Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)

In common: fMRI, 3 references

[7] doi:10.1162/imag.a.1198 [code]

MEPrep: A robust pipeline for multi-echo fMRI denoising and preprocessing.

Journal: Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)

In common: fMRI, 3 references

[8] doi:10.1162/netn.a.547 [code]

An evaluation of the efficacy of single-echo and multi-echo fMRI denoising strategies.

Journal: Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)

In common: fMRI, 3 references

[9] doi:10.1016/j.isci.2026.116384

Human-relevant transcranial magnetic stimulation in awake rhesus macaques assisted by a non-invasive head and arm fixation apparatus.

Journal: iScience

In common: other, 2 references

[10] doi:10.1093/sleep/zsag030 [code]

Divergent disruption of brain networks following total and chronic sleep loss: a longitudinal fMRI study.

Journal: Sleep

In common: systems, fMRI, 2 references

Contribute

The authors of this paper can claim it, correct its record and validate its tracing map, and the maintainers of its code (its owner, or a public member of its organization) correct what it says of their repository; anyone signed in can ask for its removal. Every request goes to OSCR's own machine, which answers it; your account page follows them.

Request its removal

To ask OSCR to remove this record, the copies of its authors' scripts or its tracing map, use the removal request page: signed in, you say who you are, what to remove and why, then review and confirm the request. Published rules decide every request (how).

Discussion: questions and error reports about this paper and its code, from signed-in readers and its authors. It opens with sign-in.

Reproductions: reports from readers who ran the authors' code: what they reproduced, with which environment, commit and data. It opens with sign-in.

Activity: what happens around this paper: new versions of its record, its map's validation, discussions and reproductions. It opens with sign-in.