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The impact of external and internal focus of attention on visual dependence and EEG alpha oscillations during postural control. J Neuroeng Rehabil 2022; 19:81. [PMID: 35883085 PMCID: PMC9316701 DOI: 10.1186/s12984-022-01059-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2022] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background The ability to maintain upright posture requires successful integration of multiple sensory inputs (visual, vestibular, and somatosensory). When one or more sensory systems become unreliable, the postural control system must “down-weight” (or reduce the influence of) those senses and rely on other senses to maintain postural stability. As individuals age, their ability to successfully reweight sensory inputs diminishes, leading to increased fall risk. The present study investigates whether manipulating attentional focus can improve the ability to prioritize different sensory inputs for postural control. Methods Forty-two healthy adults stood on a balance board while wearing a virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display. The VR environment created a multisensory conflict amongst the different sensory signals as participants were tasked with maintaining postural stability on the balance board. Postural sway and scalp electroencephalography (EEG) were measured to assess visual weighting and cortical activity changes. Participants were randomized into groups that received different instructions on where to focus their attention during the balance task. Results Following the instructions to direct attention toward the movement of the board (external focus group) was associated with lower visual weighting and better balance performance than when not given any instructions on attentional focus (control group). Following the instructions to direct attention towards movement of the feet (internal focus group) did not lead to any changes in visual weighting or balance performance. Both external and internal focus groups exhibited increased EEG alpha power (8–13 Hz) activity over the occipital cortex as compared to the control group. Conclusions Current results suggest that directing one’s attention externally, away from one’s body, may optimize sensory integration for postural control when visual inputs are incongruent with somatosensory and vestibular inputs. Current findings may be helpful for clinicians and researchers in developing strategies to improve sensorimotor mechanisms for balance.
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Figueiredo GA, Barela AMF, Bonnet CT, Barela JA. Haptic Information Improvement on Postural Sway is Information-Dependent But Not Influenced by Cognitive Task. J Mot Behav 2022; 54:515-522. [PMID: 35104435 DOI: 10.1080/00222895.2022.2030667] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Young adults reduce their sway in both light touch (LT) and anchor systems (AS), however, the cognitive involvement in these tasks is unknown. This study investigated postural control in young adults standing upright using either LT or AS, concomitantly with a cognitive task (counting). Nine adults (26 ± 7.4 years) stood in the upright tandem stance with eyes closed, with/without LT, AS (force <2 N), and a cognitive task. The mean sway amplitude of the trunk, right wrist, and shoulder ellipse area, as well as the mean force during LT and AS were obtained. The cognitive task did not influence the magnitude of trunk sway or the mean force in the LT and AS conditions. The trunk sway magnitude was reduced in the AS and even further in LT. Wrist and shoulder variability was larger in the AS than in the LT. Based on these results, we conclude that enhanced sensory cues provided by LT and AS reduce trunk sway with little or no attentional demands.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ana Maria F Barela
- Institute of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Cruzeiro do Sul University, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - Cédrick T Bonnet
- Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, CNRS, UMR 9193, Univ. Lille, Lille, France
| | - José A Barela
- Department of Physical Education, São Paulo State University, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil
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3
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Saccadic eye movement performance reduces visual manipulation influence and center of pressure displacements in older fallers. Exp Brain Res 2021; 240:395-406. [PMID: 34741190 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-021-06256-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2021] [Accepted: 10/24/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
This study examined changes in postural control and gaze performance of faller and non-faller older adults under conditions of visual tasks and optical flow manipulations. Fifteen older non-fallers (69.8 years, ± 3.2) and fifteen older fallers (71.1 years, ± 6.4) stood on a force platform inside a moving room wearing an eye tracker. Four tasks were performed: gaze fixation; predictable saccades; unpredictable saccades; and free-viewing. The stimuli appeared at a frequency of 1.1 Hz during conditions of predictable and unpredictable saccades. Sixteen trials were divided into two blocks. In the first block, the room remained stationary. In the second block, the room oscillated, without the participant's awareness, with a 0.6 cm amplitude and 0.2 Hz frequency. Results showed postural sway attenuation in older fallers during the saccadic tasks compared to gaze fixation and free-viewing tasks, in both stationary and moving room conditions. Both groups showed increased center of pressure (CoP) magnitude during the moving room condition and CoP displacements strongly coupled to the room's movement. The influence of the moving room on the postural sway was reduced during the saccadic tasks for both older groups. Older fallers exhibited higher variability compared to older non-fallers. Gaze behavior differences between groups were dependent on the goals of the visual tasks. Therefore, CoP displacements of older adults are reduced during saccadic tasks regardless of their falling history. However, postural and gaze performance of older fallers suggests increased deterioration of postural and oculomotor control which may be used as a predictor of fall risk.
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Vérité F, Bachta W. Cognitive processes and a centre-of-pressure error-based moving light-touch biofeedback. Neurosci Lett 2021; 749:135743. [PMID: 33607204 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2021.135743] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2020] [Revised: 01/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Lightly touching an earth-fixed external surface with the forefinger provides somatosensory information that reduces the center of pressure (CoP) oscillations. If this surface were to move slowly, the central nervous system (CNS) would misinterpret its movement as body self-motion, and involuntary compensatory sway responses would appear, resulting in a significant coupling between finger and CoP motions. We designed a forefinger moving light-touch biofeedback based on this finding, which controls the surface velocity to drive the CoP towards a target position. Here, we investigate this biofeedback resistance to cognitive processes. In addition to a baseline, the experimental protocol includes four main conditions. In the first, participants were utterly naive about the feedback. Then, they received additional reliable sensory information. The third condition ensured their full awareness of the external nature of the surface motion. Finally, the experimenter notified them that the external motion drives their balance and asked them to reject its influence. Our investigation shows that despite the robustness of the proposed biofeedback, light-touch remains penetrable by cognitive processes. For participants to dramatically reduce the existing coupling between the finger and CoP motions, they should be aware of the external motion, how it impacts sway, and actively reject its influence. The main implication of our findings is that light-touch exhibits the same cognitive flexibility as vision when artificially stimulated. This could be interpreted as a defense mechanism to re-weight these two sensory inputs in a moving environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabien Vérité
- Sorbonne Université, ISIR, UMR 7222 CNRS, Agathe Group INSERM U 1150, Paris, France
| | - Wael Bachta
- Sorbonne Université, ISIR, UMR 7222 CNRS, Agathe Group INSERM U 1150, Paris, France.
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Razuk M, Lukasova K, Bucci MP, Barela JA. Dyslexic children need more robust information to resolve conflicting sensory situations. DYSLEXIA (CHICHESTER, ENGLAND) 2020; 26:52-66. [PMID: 31680390 DOI: 10.1002/dys.1641] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2018] [Revised: 07/09/2019] [Accepted: 10/21/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The study involved investigating dyslexic children's postural control responses when visual and somatosensory cues were separately manipulated. Twenty dyslexic and 19 nondyslexic children performed a trial by standing upright inside a moving room and another by lightly touching a moving bar. Both trials lasted 240 s with the following three different stimulus characteristics: low (pretransition), high (transition), and low amplitude (posttransition). Body sway magnitude and the relationship between the movement of the room/bar surface and body sway were examined. When compared to nondyslexic children, dyslexic children oscillated with higher magnitude in the transition and posttransition under visual and somatosensory manipulation; their sway was more influenced by visual manipulation in the transition and posttransition, and they used higher applied force levels in the somatosensory modality in all conditions. The results suggest that dyslexic children could not efficiently reweight visual cues when compared to nondyslexic children. The same was not observed in the somatosensory cues when dyslexic children reduced the influence of the somatosensory stimulus. The proper use of somatosensory information was related to stronger acquired cues and higher applied forces as observed for dyslexic children. Dyslexic children experience difficulties in dynamically reweighting sensory cues although these types of difficulties are overcome when more informative sensory cues are provided.
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Affiliation(s)
- Milena Razuk
- Institute of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Cruzeiro do Sul University, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Katerina Lukasova
- Center of Mathematics, Computing and Cognition, Federal University of ABC, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Maria Pia Bucci
- UMR 1141 Inserm, Hôpital Robert Debré, Université Paris Diderot, Paris, France
| | - José Angelo Barela
- Institute of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Cruzeiro do Sul University, São Paulo, Brazil
- Institute of Biosciences, São Paulo State University, Rio Claro, Brazil
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Daniels KA, Henderson G, Strike S, Cosgrave C, Fuller C, Falvey É. The use of continuous spectral analysis for the assessment of postural stability changes after sports-related concussion. J Biomech 2019; 97:109400. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2019.109400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2019] [Revised: 10/02/2019] [Accepted: 10/06/2019] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
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The effect of light touch on standing sway when the stability of the external touch reference becomes unreliable. Exp Brain Res 2018; 237:663-672. [DOI: 10.1007/s00221-018-5455-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2018] [Accepted: 12/06/2018] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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Garbus RBSC, Alouche SR, Prado-Rico JM, Aquino CM, Freitas SMSF. From One to Two: Can Visual Feedback Improve the Light Touch Effects on Postural Sway? J Mot Behav 2018; 51:532-539. [PMID: 30395794 DOI: 10.1080/00222895.2018.1528201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
The postural control is improved by implicit somatosensory information from lightly touching a rigid bar or explicit visual information about the postural sway. Whether these two additional sources provided at the same time further reduce the postural sway is still unknown. Participants stood on a force plate as quiet as possible lightly touching the bar while received or not visual feedback of the center of pressure position on a monitor screen. Postural sway reduced similarly with the light touch regardless of the additional visual feedback. The findings suggested that providing explicit visual feedback of the center of pressure does not increase the light touch effects on the postural sway. The importance of the implicit somatosensory information on postural control is discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rafaela B S C Garbus
- a Graduate Program in Physical Therapy , Universidade Cidade de São Paulo , São Paulo , Brazil
| | - Sandra R Alouche
- a Graduate Program in Physical Therapy , Universidade Cidade de São Paulo , São Paulo , Brazil
| | - Janina M Prado-Rico
- a Graduate Program in Physical Therapy , Universidade Cidade de São Paulo , São Paulo , Brazil
| | - Camila M Aquino
- a Graduate Program in Physical Therapy , Universidade Cidade de São Paulo , São Paulo , Brazil
| | - Sandra M S F Freitas
- a Graduate Program in Physical Therapy , Universidade Cidade de São Paulo , São Paulo , Brazil .,b Department of Kinesiology , The Pennsylvania State University , University Park , Pennsylvania , USA .,c Department of Neurology , The Pennsylvania State University - Milton S. Hershey Medical Center , Hershey , Pennsylvania , USA
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Cruz CF, Piemonte MEP, Okai-Nobrega LA, Okamoto E, Fortaleza ACDS, Mancini M, Horak FB, Barela JA. Parkinson's disease does not alter automatic visual-motor coupling in postural control. Neurosci Lett 2018; 686:47-52. [PMID: 30193795 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2018.08.050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2018] [Revised: 07/25/2018] [Accepted: 08/31/2018] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
This study examined the coupling between visual information and body sway in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) compared with healthy controls. Postural control performance was compared between 14 patients with PD (age: 69.6 ± 8.8 years - stages 1-3 of the Hoehn and Yahr scale) and 14 healthy control participants (age: 68.6 ± 3.0 years). Participants stood upright in a moving room that remained motionless or continuously oscillated in the anterior-posterior direction. Ten trials were performed in the following conditions: no movement of the room (1 trial) and with the room moving at frequencies of 0.1, 0.17, and 0.5 Hz (3 trials each frequency). Body sway and moving room displacement were recorded. The results indicated that patients with PD displayed larger body sway magnitude in the stationary room condition. Body sway of patients with PD was induced by visual manipulation in all three visual stimulus frequencies, but body sway of patients with PD was less coherent compared to that of the control participants. However, no difference was observed in the visual-body sway coupling structure. These results indicate that patients with PD can unconsciously couple body sway to visual information in order to control postural sway in a similar manner to healthy participants with intact visual-motor coupling for posture control. However, this coupling is marked by greater variability, indicating that people with PD have a motor system with greater inherent noise leading to a more varied behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caio Ferraz Cruz
- Institute of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Cruzeiro do Sul University, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - Maria Elisa Pimentel Piemonte
- Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; Brazilian Parkinson Association, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - Líria Akie Okai-Nobrega
- School of Physical Education, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | - Erika Okamoto
- Brazilian Parkinson Association, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | | | - Martina Mancini
- Portland Veterans Affairs Health Care Service and Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Fay Bahling Horak
- Portland Veterans Affairs Health Care Service and Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - José Angelo Barela
- Institute of Biosciences, São Paulo State University, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil.
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Attentional artifacts in sensorimotor coupling in the postural control of young adults. Exp Brain Res 2016; 234:3641-3647. [DOI: 10.1007/s00221-016-4762-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2015] [Accepted: 08/18/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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Moraes R, de Freitas PB, Razuk M, Barela JA. Quality of Visual Cue Affects Visual Reweighting in Quiet Standing. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0150158. [PMID: 26939058 PMCID: PMC4777428 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2015] [Accepted: 02/10/2016] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Sensory reweighting is a characteristic of postural control functioning adopted to accommodate environmental changes. The use of mono or binocular cues induces visual reduction/increment of moving room influences on postural sway, suggesting a visual reweighting due to the quality of available sensory cues. Because in our previous study visual conditions were set before each trial, participants could adjust the weight of the different sensory systems in an anticipatory manner based upon the reduction in quality of the visual information. Nevertheless, in daily situations this adjustment is a dynamical process and occurs during ongoing movement. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of visual transitions in the coupling between visual information and body sway in two different distances from the front wall of a moving room. Eleven young adults stood upright inside of a moving room in two distances (75 and 150 cm) wearing a liquid crystal lenses goggles, which allow individual lenses transition from opaque to transparent and vice-versa. Participants stood still during five minutes for each trial and the lenses status changed every one minute (no vision to binocular vision, no vision to monocular vision, binocular vision to monocular vision, and vice-versa). Results showed that farther distance and monocular vision reduced the effect of visual manipulation on postural sway. The effect of visual transition was condition dependent, with a stronger effect when transitions involved binocular vision than monocular vision. Based upon these results, we conclude that the increased distance from the front wall of the room reduced the effect of visual manipulation on postural sway and that sensory reweighting is stimulus quality dependent, with binocular vision producing a much stronger down/up-weighting than monocular vision.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renato Moraes
- School of Physical Education and Sport of Ribeirao Preto, University of Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, SP, Brazil
- * E-mail:
| | - Paulo Barbosa de Freitas
- Institute of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Cruzeiro do Sul University, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - Milena Razuk
- Institute of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Cruzeiro do Sul University, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - José Angelo Barela
- Institute of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Cruzeiro do Sul University, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil
- Laboratory of Movement Studies, Department of Physical Education, Sao Paulo State University, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil
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Aguiar SA, Barela JA. Adaptation of sensorimotor coupling in postural control is impaired by sleep deprivation. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0122340. [PMID: 25799560 PMCID: PMC4370556 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0122340] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2014] [Accepted: 02/13/2015] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of sleep deprivation (SD) in adaptation of the coupling between visual information and body sway in young adults’ postural control due to changes in optic flow characteristics. Fifteen young adults were kept awake for approximately 25 hours and formed the SD group, while fifteen adults who slept normally the night before the experiment participated as part of the control group. All participants stood as still as possible in a moving room before and after being exposed to one trial with higher amplitude and velocity of room movement. Postural performance and the coupling between visual information, provided by a moving room, and body sway were examined. Results showed that after an abrupt change in visual cues, larger amplitude, and higher velocity of the room, the influence of room motion on body sway was decreased in both groups. However, such a decrease was less pronounced in sleep deprived as compared to control subjects. Sleep deprived adults were able to adapt motor responses to the environmental change provided by the increase in room motion amplitude. Nevertheless, they were not as efficient as control subjects in doing so, which demonstrates that SD impairs the ability to adapt sensorimotor coupling while controlling posture when a perturbation occurs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefane A. Aguiar
- Institute of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Cruzeiro do Sul University, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - José A. Barela
- Institute of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Cruzeiro do Sul University, São Paulo, Brazil
- Institute of Biosciences, São Paulo State University, Rio Claro, Brazil
- * E-mail:
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Danna-Dos-Santos A, Degani AM, Boonstra TW, Mochizuki L, Harney AM, Schmeckpeper MM, Tabor LC, Leonard CT. The influence of visual information on multi-muscle control during quiet stance: a spectral analysis approach. Exp Brain Res 2014; 233:657-69. [DOI: 10.1007/s00221-014-4145-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2014] [Accepted: 11/07/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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