NEUROMECHANICAL STRATEGY IN VISUALLY IMPAIRED STUDENT DURING DOWNWARD STEPPING
The purpose of the present study was to evaluate leg muscular regulation and neuromuscular activation by investigating the stiffness and EMG amplitude between normal vision students and visually impaired students. Ten normal vision (age: 24.3 ± 2 years; 171.5 ± 4.6; mass: 65.9 ± 8.0) and 10 visually impaired students (age: 23.2 ± 2.4 years; 163.4 ± 9.6; mass: 62.8 ± 15.0) served as subjects. An AMTI force platform (1200 Hz) and a Peak Performance high speed camera (60 Hz) were used synchronously to record the ground reaction force, the kinematic parameters and EMG signals of lower extremity during the subjects stepped down from height 20, 30 and 40 cm. After treating the data and discussion, the conclusions were obtained. The regulation of neuromusclar system of the impaired is less efficient compared to the normal one because of softer stiffness and lower EMG activity.