Postural Control in Down Syndrome: The Use of Somatosensory and Visual Information to Attenuate Body Sway

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of information and instruction on the intrinsic dynamics of postural control functioning in children. Ten children and 10 young adults stood upright inside of a moving room that remained stationary or was discretely moved. Fourteen trials were collected, with the first and the last one without any movement of the room. In the others, the room was moved and the participants were correct or wrongly informed about its movement. The participants were also instructed to not move, move together, or move in an opposite direction of the room. Body sway due to the movement of the room and time to reversal were used to examine the visual manipulation influence. Cross-correlation coefficients and time lags between the room'ss movement and body sway were calculated. The results revealed that visual manipulation induced body sway in both children and adults. Information about the room's movement and instruction to perform an action decreased the effect of visual manipulation on body sway, with instruction to perform an action being more efficient than information about the room's movement. Children use information and instruction to alter visual manipulation influence, however, not as well as adults do.

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Coupling between visual information and body sway in adults with Down syndrome

Research in Developmental Disabilities ◽

10.1016/j.ridd.2016.08.011 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 58 ◽

pp. 9-19 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Matheus Machado Gomes ◽

Renato Moraes ◽

José Angelo Barela

Keyword(s):

Down Syndrome ◽

Visual Information ◽

Body Sway

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Postural control in children: Effect of discrete manipulation of visual information

Brazilian Journal of Motor Behavior ◽

10.20338/bjmb.v1i1.11 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Diana R. Toledo ◽

Natália M. Rinaldi ◽

José A. Barela

Keyword(s):

Young Children ◽

Postural Control ◽

Visual Information ◽

Sensory Information ◽

Body Sway ◽

Older Children ◽

Dependent Variables ◽

Trunk Sway ◽

Posterior Direction ◽

Anterior Posterior

Postural control developmental changes are observed throughout the first decade of life. Despite all the efforts to uncover the mechanisms and processes underlying these changes, it is not clear yet when children integrate sensory information related to postural control similarly to adults. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effects of visual manipulation on body oscillation in children. Ten eight-year old, ten twelve-year old children and eight adults were asked to maintain the upright stance inside a moving room that oscillated discretely back or forward. Participant trunk sway and moving room displacement, in the anterior-posterior, direction were obtained through IRED markers. Dependent variables were mean sway amplitude and body displacement due to the movement of the moving room. Results revealed that young children oscillated more than older children and adults. Similar results were observed as a consequence of visual manipulation; with young children being more affected and displaying larger body sway than older children and adults. These findings suggest that postural control is not fully developed even at age of eight years and that children at this age still may have difficulties in solving sensory conflicting situations.

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People in early stages of Parkinson’s disease are able to intentionally reweight the use of visual information for postural control

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.8552 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. e8552 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Caio F. Cruz ◽

Giovanna G. Genoves ◽

Flávia Doná ◽

Henrique B. Ferraz ◽

José A. Barela

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Postural Control ◽

Visual Information ◽

Body Sway ◽

Control Group ◽

Early Stages ◽

Coupling Structure ◽

Yahr Scale ◽

Posterior Direction

Background Parkinson’s disease (PD) leads to several changes in motor control, many of them related to informational or cognitive overload. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of knowledge and intention on the postural control performance and on the coupling between visual information and body sway in people with and without PD standing upright. Methods Participants were 21 people with PD (62.1 ± 7.2 years), stages 1 and 2 (Hoehn & Yahr scale), under dopaminergic medication, and 21 people in the control group (62.3 ± 7.1 years). Participants stood upright inside a moving room, performing seven trials of 60 s. In the first trial, the room remained motionless. In the others, the room oscillated at 0.2 Hz in the anterior-posterior direction: in the first block of three trials, the participants were not informed about the visual manipulation; in the second block of three trials, participants were informed about the room movement and asked to resist the visual influence. An OPTOTRAK system recorded the moving room displacement and the participants’ sway. The variables mean sway amplitude (MSA), coherence and gain were calculated. Results With no visual manipulation, no difference occurred between groups for MSA. Under visual manipulation conditions, people with PD presented higher MSA than control, and both groups reduced the sway magnitude in the resisting condition. Control group reduced sway magnitude by 6.1%, while PD group reduced by 11.5%. No difference was found between groups and between conditions for the coupling strength (coherence). For the coupling structure (gain), there was no group difference, but both groups showed reduced gain in the resisting condition. Control group reduced gain by 12.0%, while PD group reduced by 9.3%. Conclusions People with PD, under visual manipulation, were more influenced than controls, but they presented the same coupling structure between visual information and body sway as controls. People in early stages of PD are able to intentionally alter the influence of visual information.

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Physical Activity and Postural Control in the Elderly: Coupling between Visual Information and Body Sway

Gerontology ◽

10.1159/000083984 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 51 (3) ◽

pp. 145-148 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Ana Caroline Prioli ◽

Paulo B. Freitas Júnior ◽

José Angelo Barela

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Postural Control ◽

Visual Information ◽

The Elderly ◽

Body Sway

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Postural control in children: Effect of discrete manipulation of visual information

Brazilian Journal of Motor Behavior ◽

10.20338/bjmb.v1i1.175 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 82-88

Author(s):

Diana R. Toledo ◽

Natália M. Rinaldi ◽

José A. Barela

Keyword(s):

Young Children ◽

Postural Control ◽

Visual Information ◽

Sensory Information ◽

Body Sway ◽

Behavioral Performance ◽

Older Children ◽

Upright Stance ◽

Posterior Direction ◽

Anterior Posterior

Postural control developmental changes are observed throughout the first decade of life.These changes are in behavioral performance as well in how to integrate sensory information into motor activity.Despite all the efforts to uncover the mechanisms and processes underlying these changes, it is not clear yet when children integrate sensory information related to postural control similarly to adults.Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effects of visual manipulation on body oscillation in children. Ten eight-year old, ten twelve-year old children and eight adults were asked to maintain the upright stance inside a moving room that oscillated discretely back or forward.Participant trunk’s sway and moving room displacement, in the anterior-posterior, direction were obtained through IRED markers.Dependent variables were mean sway amplitude and body displacement due to the movement of the moving room.Results revealed that young children oscillated more than older children and adults. Similar results were observed as a consequence of visual manipulation; with young children being more affected and displaying larger body sway than older children and adults.These findings suggest that postural control is not fully developed even at age of eight years and that children at this age still may have difficulties in solving sensory conflicting situations.

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Postural control and automaticity in dyslexic children: The relationship between visual information and body sway

Research in Developmental Disabilities ◽

10.1016/j.ridd.2011.03.011 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 32 (5) ◽

pp. 1814-1821 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Jose A. Barela ◽

Josenaldo L. Dias ◽

Daniela Godoi ◽

André R. Viana ◽

Paulo B. de Freitas

Keyword(s):

Postural Control ◽

Visual Information ◽

Body Sway ◽

The Relationship

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Effects of hypothermic anesthesia of the feet on vibration-induced body sway and adaptation

Journal of Vestibular Research ◽

10.3233/ves-2003-13105 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 39-52 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

F. Stål ◽

P.A. Fransson ◽

M. Magnusson ◽

M. Karlberg

Keyword(s):

Postural Control ◽

Sensory Loss ◽

Body Sway ◽

Cutaneous Mechanoreceptors ◽

Supporting Surface ◽

Eyes Closed ◽

Somatosensory Input ◽

Eyes Open ◽

Sensor Information ◽

Ice Water

The aim of this study was to investigate the significance of information from the plantar cutaneous mechanoreceptors in postural control and whether postural control could compensate for reduced cutaneous information by adaptation. Sixteen healthy subjects were tested with eyes open or eyes closed with hypothermic and normal feet temperature during posturography where body sway was induced by vibratory proprioceptive stimulation towards both calf muscles. The hypothermic anesthesia was obtained by cooling the subject's feet in ice water for 20 minutes. Body movements were evaluated by analyzing the anteroposterior and lateral torques induced towards the supporting surface by a force platform during the posturography tests. The reduction of cutaneous sensor information from the mechanoreceptors of the feet significantly increased the vibration-induced torque variance mainly in the anteroposterior direction. However, the effects of disturbed mechanoreceptors information was rapidly compensated for through postural adaptation and torque variance was in level with that without anesthesia within 50 to 100 seconds of stimulation, both when standing with eyes open and eyes closed. Our findings suggest that somatosensory input from mechanoreceptors in the foot soles contribute significantly in maintaining postural control, but the sensory loss could be compensated for.

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