Abstract
Effects of different visual conditions on the vertical posture maintenance were compared in subjects standing on a firm or compliant surface. These visual conditions included a motionless visual environment (MVE), eyes-closed condition (EC), and a virtual visual environment (VVE). The VVE consisted of two planes: the foreground and background. The foreground displayed a room window with adjacent walls, and the background was represented by an aqueduct with the adjacent landscape. The VVE was destabilized by inducing either the cophased or the antiphased relation between the foreground of the visual scene and the body sway. We evaluated changes in the amplitude spectra of two elementary variables calculated from the trajectories of the plantar center of pressure (CoP) displacements in the anteroposterior and lateral directions, namely, the trajectories for the center of gravity projections on the support (the CG variable) and the differences between the CoP and CG trajectories (the CoP–CG variable).The CG trajectory was considered as a controlled variable, and the difference between the CoP and CG trajectories were considered as a variable related to the body acceleration and reflecting changes in the resultant stiffness in ankle joints. The rootmean-square (RMS) values for the spectra of both variables calculated from the body sway in the anteroposterior direction in standing on a firm support decreased proportionately with antiphased relation between the foreground and the body sway and increased with the cophased relation, compared with the RMS calculated for the MVE conditions. RMS for the spectra of the CG variable in the cophased relation were nearly the same, as in standing with eyes closed (EC), while the RMS for the spectra of the CoP–CG variable were significantly less than with EC. The body sway during standing on a compliant support significantly increased in both the anteroposterior and the lateral directions under all visual conditions. RMS for the spectra of both variables with EC increased considerably higher than in the cophased relation. Furthermore, the RMS for the spectra of the CG variable calculated from the body sway in the lateral direction on a compliant support was substantially higher in the antiphased relation than in the cophased relation, whereas the RMS for the spectra of the CoP–CG variable under both conditions had similar values. The analysis of body sway and the results under some visual conditions have shown that the amplitude characteristics of the CG and CoP–CG variables changed not always proportionately with the passage from standing on a firm support to a compliant support. It is suggested that the found disproportion of changes in these two variables is probably associated with the contribution of another additional factor to the process of postural control, the passive elastic component of musculo-articular stiffness generated by fascial-tendon tissues.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Assländer, L. and Peterka, R.J., Sensory reweighting dynamics in human postural control, J. Neurophysiol., 2014, vol. 111, no. 9, p. 1852.
Sousa, A.S., Silva, A., and Tavares, J.M., Biomechanical and neurophysiological mechanisms related to postural control and efficiency of movement: a review, Somatosens. Mot. Res., 2012, vol. 29, no. 4, p. 131.
Faraldo-García, A., Santos-Pérez, S., Crujeiras-Casais, R., et al. Influence of age and gender in the sensory analysis of balance control, Eur. Arch. Otorhinolaryngol., 2012, vol. 269, no. 2, p. 673.
Polastri, P.F., Barela, J.A., Kiemel, T., et al., Dynamics of inter-modality re-weighting during human postural control, Exp. Brain Res., 2012, vol. 223, no. 1, p. 99.
Chen, E.W., Fu, A.S., Chan, K.M., et al., Balance control in very old adults with and without visual impairment, Eur. J. Appl. Physiol., 2012, vol. 112, no. 5, p. 1631.
Giagazoglou, P., Amiridis, I.G., Zafeiridis, A., et al., Static balance control and lower limb strength in blind and sighted women, Eur. J. Appl. Physiol., 2009, vol. 107, no. 5, p. 571.
Magalhães, F.H. and Kohn, A.F., Vibration-enhanced posture stabilization achieved by tactile supplementation: may blind individuals get extra benefits?, Med. Hypotheses, 2011, vol. 77, no. 2, p. 301.
Smetanin, B.N., Kozhina, G.V., and Popov, A.K., Maintenance of the upright posture in humans upon manipulating the direction and delay of visual feedback, Neurophysiology, 2012, vol. 44, no. 5, p. 401.
Keshner, E.A., Slaboda, J.C., Day, L.L., and Darvish, K., Visual conflict and cognitive load modify postural responses to vibrotactile noise, J. Neuroeng. Rehabil., 2014, no. 11, p. 6.
Soechting, J. and Berthoz, A., Dynamic role of vision in the control of posture in man, Exp. Brain Res., 1979, vol. 36, no. 3, p. 551.
Dokka, K., Kenyon, R.V., and Keshner, E., Influence of visual scene velocity on segmental kinematics during stance, Gait Posture, 2009, vol. 30, no. 2, p. 211.
Hanssens, J.M., Allard, R., and Giraudet, G., Visually induced postural reactivity is velocity-dependent at low temporal frequencies and frequency-dependent at high temporal frequencies, Exp. Brain Res., 2013, vol. 229, no. 1, p. 75.
Joseph, J., Safavynia, S.A., and Ting, L.H., Contribution of vision to postural behaviors during continuous support-surface translations, Exp. Brain Res., 2014, vol. 232, no. 1, p. 169.
Alexandrov, A.V., Frolov, A.A., Horak, F.B., et al., Feedback equilibrium control during human standing, Biol. Cybern., 2005, vol. 93, no. 5, p. 309.
Smetanin, B.N., Kozhina, G.V., and Popov, A.K., Dependence of joint stiffness on the conditions of visual control in upright undisturbed stance in humans, Neurophysiology, 2006, vol. 38, no. 2, p. 157.
Rougier, P., Zanders, E., and Borlet, E., Influence of visual cues on upright postural control: differentiated effects of eyelids closure, Rev. Neurol., 2003, vol. 159, no. 2, p. 180.
Collins, J.J. and De Luca, C.J., The effects of visual input on open-loop and closed-loop postural control mechanisms, Exp. Brain Res., 1995, vol. 103, no. 1, p. 151.
Smetanin, B.N., Popov, K.E., and Kozhina, G.V., Human postural responses to vibratory stimulation of calf muscles under conditions of visual inversion, Hum. Physiol., 2002, vol. 28, no. 5, p. 556.
Fitzpatrick, R., Burke, D., and Gandevia, S.C., taskdependent reflex responses and movement illusions evoked by galvanic vestibular stimulation in standing humans, J. Physiol., 1994, vol. 478, no. 2, p. 363.
Kozhina, G.V., Levik, Yu.S., and Smetanin, B.N., Influence of a light tactile contact on vertical posture maintenance under the conditions of destabilization of visual environment, Hum. Physiol., 2015, vol. 41, no. 5, p. 98.
Smetanin, B.N., Kozhina, G.V., and Popov, A.K., Human upright posture control in a virtual visual environment, Hum. Physiol., 2009, vol. 35, no. 2, p. 177.
Horstmann, G.A. and Dietz, V., A basic posture control mechanism: the stabilization of the centre of gravity, Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol., 1990, vol. 76, no. 2, p. 165.
Rougier, P., Compatibility of postural behavior induced by two aspects of visual feedback: time delay and scale display, Exp. Brain Res., 2005, vol. 165, no. 2, p. 193.
Winter, D.A., Patla, A.E., Prince, F.M., et al., Stiffness control of balance in quiet standing, J. Neurophysiol., 1998, vol. 80, no. 3, p. 1211.
Nafati, G. and Vuillerme, N., Decreasing internal focus of attention improves postural control during quiet standing in young healthy adults, Res. Q. Exercise Sport, 2011, vol. 82, no. 4, p. 634.
Burdea, G. and Coiffet, P., Virtual Reality Technology, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Wiley-IEEE Press, 2003.
Caron, O., Faure, B., and Brenière, Y., Estimating the center of gravity of the body on the basis of the center of pressure in standing posture, J. Biomech., 1997, vol. 30, nos. 11–12, p. 1169.
Munoz, F. and Rougier, P.R., Estimation of centre of gravity movements in sitting posture: application to trunk backward tilt, J. Biomech., 2011, vol. 44, no. 9, p. 1771.
Pavlou, M., Quinn, C., Murray, K., et al., The effect of repeated visual motion stimuli on visual dependence and postural control in normal subjects, Gait Posture, 2011, vol. 33, no. 1, p. 113.
Cohen, H.S., Mulavara, A.P., Peters, B.T., et al., Standing balance tests for screening people with vestibular impairments, Laryngoscope, 2014, vol. 124, no. 2, p. 545.
Mulavara, A.P., Cohen, H.S., Peters, B.T., et al., New analyses of the sensory organization test compared to the clinical test of sensory integration and balance in patients with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, Laryngoscope, 2013, vol. 123, no. 9, p. 2276.
Brandt, T., Kugler, G., Schniepp, R., et al., Acrophobia impairs visual exploration and balance during standing and walking, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci., 2015. vol., 1343, p. 37.
Fouré, A., Nordez, A., McNair, P., and Cornu, C., Effects of plyometric training on both active and passive parts of the plantarflexors series elastic component stiffness of muscle-tendon complex, Eur. J. Appl. Physiol., 2011, vol. 111, no. 3, p. 539.
Kubo, K., Active muscle stiffness in the human medial gastrocnemius muscle in vivo, J. Appl. Physiol., 2014, vol. 117, no. 9, p. 1020.
Fouré, A., Cornu, C., McNair, P.J., and Nordez, A., Gender differences in both active and passive parts of the plantar flexors series elastic component stiffness and geometrical parameters of the muscle-tendon complex, J. Orthop. Res., 2012, vol. 30, no. 5, p. 707.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © B.N. Smetanin, G.V. Kozhina, A.K. Popov, Y.S. Levik, 2016, published in Fiziologiya Cheloveka, 2016, Vol. 42, No. 6, pp. 49–57.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Smetanin, B.N., Kozhina, G.V., Popov, A.K. et al. Spectral analysis of the human body sway during standing on firm and compliant surfaces under different visual conditions. Hum Physiol 42, 626–633 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119716050157
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119716050157