Effects of Maintaining Touch Contact on Predictive and Reactive Balance

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 2686-2695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leif Johannsen ◽  
Alan M. Wing ◽  
Vassilia Hatzitaki
Keyword(s):  
Time Course ◽  
Center Of Pressure ◽  
The Body ◽  
Contact Forces ◽  
Quiet Standing ◽  
Support Surface ◽  
Light Touch ◽  
Postural Control System ◽  
Postural Responses ◽  
Body Self

Light touch contact between the body and an environmental referent reduces fluctuations of center of pressure (CoP) in quiet standing although the contact forces are insufficient to provide significant forces to stabilize standing balance. Maintenance of upright standing posture (with light touch contact) may include both predictive and reactive components. Recently Dickstein et al. (2003) demonstrated that reaction to temporally unpredictable displacement of the support surface was affected by light touch raising the question whether light touch effects also occur with predictable disturbance to balance. We examined the effects of shoulder light touch on SD of CoP rate (dCoP) during balance perturbations associated with forward sway induced by pulling on (voluntary), or being pulled by (reactive), a hand-held horizontal load. Prior to perturbation, SD dCoP was lower with light touch, corresponding to previous findings. Immediately after perturbation, SD dCoPAP was greater with light touch in the case of voluntary pull, whereas no difference was found for reflex pull. However, in the following time course, light touch contact again resulted in a significantly lower SD dCoP and faster stabilization of SD dCoP. We conclude that shoulder light touch contact affects immediate postural responses to voluntary pull but also stabilization after voluntary and reflex perturbation. We suggest that in voluntary perturbation CoP fluctuations are differentially modulated in anterioposterior and mediolateral directions to maintain light touch, which not only provides augmented sensory feedback about body self-motion, but may act as a “constraint” to the postural control system when preparing postural adjustments.

Postural sway with earth-fixed and body-referenced finger contact in young and older adults

1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-109
Author(s):  
Reginald L. Reginella ◽  
Mark S. Redfern ◽  
Joseph M. Furman
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Postural Sway ◽  
Center Of Pressure ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Body Sway ◽  
Support Surface ◽  
Proprioceptive Information ◽  
Postural Control System ◽  
Fixed Reference ◽  
Older Subjects

Sensory information from lightly touching a reference with the hand is known to influence postural sway in young adults. The primary aim of this study was to compare the influence of finger contact (FC) with an earth-fixed reference to the influence of FC with a body-fixed reference. A second goal of this study was to determine if FC is used differently by older adults compared to younger adults. Using a force plate, center of pressure at the feet was recorded from blindfolded young and older subjects during several conditions. Subjects either did or did not lightly touch a force-sensitive plate that was either earth-fixed or moved forward and backward in synchrony with body sway (that is, sway-referenced). In addition, support surface conditions were also varied, including a fixed floor and a sway-referenced floor using an EquitestTM. Results showed that the type of FC, floor condition, and age each had an effect on postural sway. Touching an earth-fixed plate decreased postural sway as compared to no touching, while touching a sway-referenced plate incresased sway. This influence of FC was enhanced when the floor was sway-referenced. Although older subjects swayed more than young subjects overall, no age-FC interactions occurred, indicating that FC was not utilized differently between the age groups. This study suggests that FC cannot be disregarded as erroneous, especially when proprioceptive information from the legs is distorted. Further, FC is integrated with other sensory information by the postural control system similarly in young and older persons.

scholarly journals Characteristics of Functional Stability in Young Adolescent Female Artistic Gymnasts

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-59
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Opala-Berdzik ◽  
Magdalena Głowacka ◽  
Kajetan J. Słomka
Keyword(s):  
Postural Control ◽  
Center Of Pressure ◽  
National Level ◽  
Stability Limit ◽  
Young Adolescent ◽  
Quiet Standing ◽  
Adolescent Female ◽  
Functional Stability ◽  
Postural Control System ◽  
Stability Limits

Abstract The aim of this study was to determine whether young adolescent female artistic gymnasts demonstrate better functional stability than age- and sex-matched non-athletes. Different characteristics of the gymnasts’ postural control were expected to be observed. Twenty-two 10- to 13-year-old healthy females (ten national-level artistic gymnasts and twelve non-athletes) participated in the study. To assess their forward functional stability, the 30-s limit of stability test was performed on a force plate. The test consisted of three phases: quiet standing, transition to maximal forward leaning, and standing in the maximal forward leaning position. Between-group comparisons of the directional subcomponents of the root mean squares and mean velocities of the center of pressure and rambling-trembling displacements in two phases (quiet standing and standing in maximal leaning) were conducted. Moreover, anterior stability limits were compared. During standing in maximal forward leaning, there were no differences in the center of pressure and rambling measures between gymnasts and non-athletes (p > 0.05). The values of trembling measures in both anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions were significantly lower in gymnasts (p < 0.05). Both groups presented similar values for anterior stability limits (p > 0.05). The comparisons of rambling components may suggest a similar supraspinal control of standing in the maximal leaning position between gymnasts and healthy non-athletes. However, decreased trembling in gymnasts may indicate reduced noise in their postural control system possibly due to superior control processes at the spinal level. The anterior stability limit was not influenced by gymnastics training in female adolescents.

Prolonged Standing Task Affects Adaptability of Postural Control in People With Parkinson’s Disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-67
Author(s):  
Gabriel Felipe Moretto ◽  
Felipe Balistieri Santinelli ◽  
Tiago Penedo ◽  
Luis Mochizuki ◽  
Natalia Madalena Rinaldi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Control System ◽  
Postural Control ◽  
The Body ◽  
Quiet Standing ◽  
Body Sway ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Postural Control System ◽  
Prolonged Standing

Background Studies on short-term upright quiet standing tasks have presented contradictory findings about postural control in people with Parkinson’s disease (pwPD). Prolonged trial durations might better depict body sway and discriminate pwPD and controls. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate postural control in pwPD during a prolonged standing task. Methods A total of 26 pwPD and 25 neurologically healthy individuals performed 3 quiet standing trials (60 s) before completing a constrained prolonged standing task for 15 minutes. Motion capture was used to record body sway (Vicon, 100 Hz). To investigate the body sway behavior during the 15 minutes of standing, the analysis was divided into three 5-minute-long phases: early, middle, and late. The following body sway parameters were calculated for the anterior-posterior (AP) and medial-lateral (ML) directions: velocity, root-mean-square, and detrended fluctuations analysis (DFA). The body sway area was also calculated. Two-way ANOVAs (group and phases) and 1-way ANOVA (group) were used to compare these parameters for the prolonged standing and quiet standing, respectively. Results pwPD presented smaller sway area ( P < .001), less complexity (DFA; AP: P < .009; ML: P < .01), and faster velocity (AP: P < .002; ML: P < .001) of body sway compared with the control group during the prolonged standing task. Although the groups swayed similarly (no difference for sway area) during quiet standing, they presented differences in sway area during the prolonged standing task ( P < .001). Conclusions Prolonged standing task reduced adaptability of the postural control system in pwPD. In addition, the prolonged standing task may better analyze the adaptability of the postural control system in pwPD.

Impairments of Postural Balance in Surgically Treated Lumbar Disc Herniation Patients

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 228-234
Author(s):  
Ziva M. Rosker ◽  
Jernej Rosker ◽  
Nejc Sarabon
Keyword(s):  
Postural Balance ◽  
Center Of Pressure ◽  
Balance Control ◽  
The Body ◽  
Surface Velocity ◽  
Body Sway ◽  
Support Surface ◽  
Balance Task ◽  
Lateral Body ◽  
Unstable Support

Reports on body sway control following microdiscectomy lack reports on side-specific balance deficits as well as the effects of trunk balance control deficits on body sway during upright stances. About 3 weeks post microdiscectomy, the body sway of 27 patients and 25 controls was measured while standing in an upright quiet stance with feet positioned parallel on an unstable support surface, a tandem stance with the involved leg positioned in front or at the back, a single-leg stance with both legs, and sitting on an unstable surface. Velocity, average amplitude, and frequency-direction–specific parameters were analyzed from the center of pressure movement, measured by the force plate. Statistically significant differences between the 2 groups were observed for the medial–lateral body sway frequency in parallel stance on a stable and unstable support surface and for the sitting balance task in medial-lateral body sway parameters. Medium to high correlations were observed between body sway during sitting and the parallel stance, as well as between the tandem and single-legged stances. Following microdiscectomy, deficits in postural balance were side specific, as expected by the nature of the pathology. In addition, the results of this study confirmed the connection between proximal balance control deficits and balance during upright quiet balance tasks.

scholarly journals Effects of light touch on balance in patients with stroke

Open Medicine ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 259-263
Author(s):  
Tae-sung In ◽  
Jin-Hwa Jung ◽  
Sang-hun Jang ◽  
Kyung-hun Kim ◽  
Kyoung-sim Jung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Postural Sway ◽  
Center Of Pressure ◽  
Force Plate ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Support Surface ◽  
Light Touch ◽  
Mean Velocity ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Surface Conditions ◽  
Hemiparetic Stroke

AbstractLight touch is the combination of cutaneous and kinesthetic inputs. The literature suggests that light touch compensates for a reduced amount of center of pressure information in older peoples, blind subjects and patients with neurological disorder. This study investigated the effects of light touch applied to an external bar, on the postural sway in individuals with hemiparetic stroke. We used a cross sectional study, fifteen individuals with stroke and 15 healthy age-matched adults stood as still as possible on a force plate. Experimental trials (duration, 30 s) included two visual conditions (open eyes and closed eyes), two somatosensory conditions (no touch and light touch) and two support surface conditions (firm and foam surfaces). The area of center of pressure (COP) and the mean velocity of COP in the medio-lateral and anterior-posterior directions were assessed. For both groups, COP velocity and area decreased with light touch regardless of the visual or surface conditions. The effects of light touch were similar in both groups. In addition, results show that the effectiveness of light touch in reducing postural sway was greater on a foam surface than on a firm surface. Our findings indicate that light touch could be beneficial in postural control for individuals with hemi-paretic stroke

Influences of Arm Proprioception and Degrees of Freedom on Postural Control With Light Touch Feedback

2008 ◽  
Vol 99 (2) ◽  
pp. 595-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ely Rabin ◽  
Paul DiZio ◽  
Joel Ventura ◽  
James R. Lackner
Keyword(s):  
Postural Control ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Biceps Brachii ◽  
Postural Sway ◽  
Center Of Pressure ◽  
Tactile Feedback ◽  
Contact Forces ◽  
Light Touch ◽  
Postural Stabilization ◽  
And Control

Lightly touching a stable surface with one fingertip strongly stabilizes standing posture. The three main features of this phenomenon are fingertip contact forces maintained at levels too low to provide mechanical support, attenuation of postural sway relative to conditions without fingertip touch, and center of pressure (CP) lags changes in fingertip shear forces by ∼250 ms. In the experiments presented here, we tested whether accurate arm proprioception and also whether the precision fingertip contact afforded by the arm's many degrees of freedom are necessary for postural stabilization by finger contact. In our first experiment, we perturbed arm proprioception and control with biceps brachii vibration (120-Hz, 2-mm amplitude). This degraded postural control, resulting in greater postural sway amplitudes. In a second study, we immobilized the touching arm with a splint. This prevented precision fingertip contact but had no effect on postural sway amplitude. In both experiments, the correlation and latency of fingertip contact forces to postural sway were unaffected. We conclude that postural control is executed based on information about arm orientation as well as tactile feedback from light touch, although precision fingertip contact is not essential. The consistent correlation and timing of CP movement and fingertip forces across conditions in which postural sway amplitude and fingertip contact are differentially disrupted suggests posture and the fingertip are controlled in parallel with feedback from the fingertip in this task.

scholarly journals Visual Modulation of Human Responses to Support Surface Translation

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Emre Akçay ◽  
Vittorio Lippi ◽  
Thomas Mergner
Keyword(s):  
Inverted Pendulum ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
The Body ◽  
Resonance Phenomenon ◽  
Continuous Illumination ◽  
Support Surface ◽  
Position Information ◽  
Eyes Closed ◽  
Postural Responses ◽  
Visual Conditions

Vision is known to improve human postural responses to external perturbations. This study investigates the role of vision for the responses to continuous pseudorandom support surface translations in the body sagittal plane in three visual conditions: with the eyes closed (EC), in stroboscopic illumination (EO/SI; only visual position information) and with eyes open in continuous illumination (EO/CI; position and velocity information) with the room as static visual scene (or the interior of a moving cabin, in some of the trials). In the frequency spectrum of the translation stimulus we distinguished on the basis of the response patterns between a low-frequency, mid-frequency, and high-frequency range (LFR: 0.0165-0.14 Hz; MFR: 0.15–0.57 Hz; HFR: 0.58–2.46 Hz). With EC, subjects’ mean sway response gain was very low in the LFR. On average it increased with EO/SI (although not to a significant degree p = 0.078) and more so with EO/CI (p &lt; 10−6). In contrast, the average gain in the MFR decreased from EC to EO/SI (although not to a significant degree, p = 0.548) and further to EO/CI (p = 0.0002). In the HFR, all three visual conditions produced, similarly, high gain levels. A single inverted pendulum (SIP) model controlling center of mass (COM) balancing about the ankle joints formally described the EC response as being strongly shaped by a resonance phenomenon arising primarily from the control’s proprioceptive feedback loop. The effect of adding visual information in these simulations lies in a reduction of the resonance, similar as in the experiments. Extending the model to a double inverted pendulum (DIP) suggested in addition a biomechanical damping effective from trunk sway in the hip joints on the resonance.

scholarly journals Attentional demands associated with augmented visual feedback during quiet standing

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Kręcisz ◽  
Michał Kuczyński
Keyword(s):  
Postural Control ◽  
Visual Feedback ◽  
Center Of Pressure ◽  
Quiet Standing ◽  
Mean Power ◽  
Mean Power Frequency ◽  
Postural Control System ◽  
Power Frequency ◽  
Auditory Reaction Time ◽  
Anterior Posterior

To investigate how additional visual feedback (VFB) affects postural stability we compared 20-sec center-of-pressure (COP) recordings in two conditions: without and with the VFB. Seven healthy adult subjects performed 10 trials lasting 20 seconds in each condition. Simultaneously, during all trials the simple auditory reaction time (RT) was measured. Based on the COP data, the following sway parameters were computed: standard deviation (SD), mean speed (MV), sample entropy (SE), and mean power frequency (MPF). The RT was higher in the VFB condition (p < 0.001) indicating that this condition was attention demanding. The VFB resulted in decreased SD and increased SE in both the medial-lateral (ML) and anterior-posterior (AP) planes (p < .001). These results account for the efficacy of the VFB in stabilizing posture and in producing more irregular COP signals which may be interpreted as higher automaticity and/or larger level of noise in postural control. The MPF was higher during VFB in both planes as was the MV in the AP plane only (p < 0.001). The latter data demonstrate higher activity of postural control system that was caused by the availability of the set-point on the screen and the resulting control error which facilitated and sped up postural control.

scholarly journals Virtual-Reality-Induced Visual Perturbations Impact Postural Control System Behavior

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harish Chander ◽  
Sachini N. K. Kodithuwakku Arachchige ◽  
Christopher M. Hill ◽  
Alana J. Turner ◽  
Shuchisnigdha Deb ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Control System ◽  
Postural Control ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Postural Stability ◽  
Postural Sway ◽  
Center Of Pressure ◽  
Postural Control System ◽  
Postural Responses ◽  
The Impact

Background: Virtual reality (VR) is becoming a widespread tool in rehabilitation, especially for postural stability. However, the impact of using VR in a “moving wall paradigm” (visual perturbation), specifically without and with anticipation of the perturbation, is unknown. Methods: Nineteen healthy subjects performed three trials of static balance testing on a force plate under three different conditions: baseline (no perturbation), unexpected VR perturbation, and expected VR perturbation. The statistical analysis consisted of a 1 × 3 repeated-measures ANOVA to test for differences in the center of pressure (COP) displacement, 95% ellipsoid area, and COP sway velocity. Results: The expected perturbation rendered significantly lower (p < 0.05) COP displacements and 95% ellipsoid area compared to the unexpected condition. A significantly higher (p < 0.05) sway velocity was also observed in the expected condition compared to the unexpected condition. Conclusions: Postural stability was lowered during unexpected visual perturbations compared to both during baseline and during expected visual perturbations, suggesting that conflicting visual feedback induced postural instability due to compensatory postural responses. However, during expected visual perturbations, significantly lowered postural sway displacement and area were achieved by increasing the sway velocity, suggesting the occurrence of postural behavior due to anticipatory postural responses. Finally, the study also concluded that VR could be used to induce different postural responses by providing visual perturbations to the postural control system, which can subsequently be used as an effective and low-cost tool for postural stability training and rehabilitation.

Recovery of Postural Control After an Acute Unilateral Vestibular Lesion in Humans

1991 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-383
Author(s):  
Michael Fetter ◽  
Hans-Christoph Diener ◽  
Johannes Dichgans
Keyword(s):  
Postural Control ◽  
Acute Phase ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Characteristic Pattern ◽  
Support Surface ◽  
Upright Stance ◽  
Spinal Balance ◽  
Vestibular Lesion ◽  
Postural Responses

Postural control during stance was investigated using the EQUITEST® system in 10 patients during recovery after an acute unilateral vestibular lesion and was compared to the time course of recovery of the static and dynamic vestibulo-ocular imbalance. During the acute phase the patients showed a characteristic pattern with normal upright stance as long as at least one accurate sensory input (visual or somatosensory) was provided and severe postural disturbances when they had to rely primarily on vestibular afferences. Both static vestibulo-ocular and vestibulo-spinal balance recovered very fast, showing basically normal results on postural testing within about 2 weeks after the lesion. Thereafter, no pathological pattern was detectable during postural testing even in patients with persistent complete unilateral vestibular lesions. Reflexive postural responses to unexpected rapid displacements of the support surface seemed not to be influenced by vestibular imbalance even in the acute phase of the lesion.

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