Postural coordination patterns as a function of dynamics of the support surface

Vector coding reveals the underlying balance control strategies used by humans during translational perturbation

Postural control research has focused on standing balance experiments on platforms moving with relatively large amplitudes (0.1-0.2 m). This study investigated balance strategies while standing on a platform moving 4 mm in anterior-posterior direction with frequency scaled linearly from 0.4 to 6 Hz. Platform motion and kinematic and kinetic information for nine healthy participants were recorded using motion capture and force plate systems. Coordination between hip, knee and ankle joint torque, and centre of mass (COM) and centre of pressure (COP) motion was quantified by vector coding. Significant main effect of platform frequency for knee-ankle and COP-COM phase relationship was observed (p = 0.023, p = 0.016). At frequencies below 2.11 and 2.34 Hz, ankle strategy was recruited. With ankle strategy, in-phase COP-COM motion with COP dominancy occurred at frequencies below 2.19 and 2.23 Hz during scaling up and down, respectively. As platform frequency passed these values, COM dominated over COP which was followed by anti-phase knee-ankle torque, called a knee strategy, and anti-phase motion between the COP and COM that allowed COP to regain dominance over COM. Collectively, we reveal knee strategy as a new and relevant strategy in real-life settings, and transition between ankle and knee strategies that underpinned transition between COP-COM relative motion.

Coordination variability reveals the features of the 'independent seat' in competitive dressage riders

The rider's ability to consistently coordinate their movements to their horse is a key determinant of performance in equestrian sport. This study investigated the inter-segmental coordination variability between the vertical displacement of a riding simulator and the pitch rotation of 28 competitive female dressage riders' head, trunk, pelvis, and left foot, in simulated medium and extended trot. A statistical non-parametric mapping three-way repeated-measures ANOVA investigated the influence of gait, competition level and segment on coordination variability. There was a significant main effect of gait and segment (p = 0.05), however, no significant effect of competition level. In medium trot, simulator-pelvis coupling was significantly (p < 0.001) less variable than simulator-head, -trunk, and -foot couplings. Significantly greater coordination variability of simulator-head and -foot relative to the trunk and pelvis suggested that riders can maintain stability in the saddle with their trunk and pelvis while allowing greater variability of their head and foot coupling to the simulator's vertical displacement. It is proposed that stronger coupling of the rider's pelvis relative to their other segments is one facet of the equestrian dressage skill of the independent seat. However, greater perturbations during simulated extended trot may necessitate a decrease in the independence of the rider's seat.

Preserved flexibility of dynamic postural control in individuals with Parkinson's disease

BACKGROUND

Continuous oscillation of the support base requires anticipatory and reactive postural adjustments to maintain a stable balance. In this context, postural control flexibility or the ability to adjust balance mechanisms following the requirements of the environment is needed to counterbalance the predictable, continuous perturbation of body balance. Considering the inflexibility of postural responses in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD), maintaining stability in the support base's continuous oscillations may be challenging. Varying the frequency of platform oscillation is an exciting approach to assess the interactions between reactive and anticipatory adjustments.

RESEARCH QUESTION

This study aimed to analyze postural responses of individuals with PD on an oscillatory support base across different frequencies.

METHODS

Thirty participants with moderate PD diagnosis (M = 64.47 years, SD = 8.59; Hoehn and Yahr scale 3) and fifteen healthy age-matched controls (M = 65.8 years, SD = 4.2) were tested. Subjects maintained a dynamic balance on a platform oscillating in sinusoidal translations. Four oscillation frequencies were evaluated in different trials that ranged from 0.2 to 0.8 Hz in steps of 0.2 Hz.

RESULTS

Analysis showed similar performance between PD and healthy participants, with modulation of amplitudes of head displacement, center of pressure, center of mass and feet-head coordination to platform oscillation frequency.

DISCUSSION

Our findings suggest a preserved ability of individuals with PD to dynamically control body balance on a support base with predictable oscillatory translations.

Effects of footedness and stance asymmetry confirm an inter-leg metastable coordination dynamics of standing posture

We investigated the patterns of coordination between the left and right legs that support the task of maintaining an upright standing posture. We used cross-wavelet analyses to assess coordination between the centers of pressure under the left and right feet. We recruited participants with a lateralized functional preference for their right leg, and we manipulated whether these participants stood with symmetric/asymmetric stances and whether their eyes were open or closed. Our hypotheses were derived from the Haken-Kelso-Bunz (HKB) model of interlimb coordination dynamics. Consistent with HKB model predictions, we observed (1) coordination taking the form of metastable, transient epochs of stable phase relations, (2) preferences for in-phase and anti-phase coordination patterns, and (3) changes in pattern stability and phase leads associated with both stance asymmetry and right-side lateral preference. The form and stability of observed coordination patterns were mediated by the availability of visual information. Our findings confirm the existence of a metastable coordination dynamic associated with the task of maintaining upright stance. We discuss the implications of these findings in the context of evaluating the utility of the HKB model for understanding the functional organization of the posture system.

Scaling oscillatory platform frequency reveals recurrence of intermittent postural attractor states

The study of postural control has been dominated by experiments on the maintenance of quiet upright standing balance on flat stationary support surfaces that reveal only limited modes of potential configurations of balance stability/instability. Here we examine the self-organization properties of postural coordination as revealed in a dynamic balance task with a moving platform. We scaled a control parameter (platform frequency) to investigate the evolving nature of the coupled oscillator dynamics between center of mass (CoM) and platform. Recurrent map measures were used to reveal whether episodic postural control strategies exist that can be scaled by systematically changing the magnitude of platform motion. The findings showed that at higher platform frequencies (1.2 Hz), the CoM-Platform coupling was less deterministic than lower platform frequencies and evolved to intermittent postural control strategies that oscillated between periodic-chaotic transitions to maintain upright postural balance. Collectively, the recurrence map measures indicated that quasi-static postural attractor states were progressively emerging to the changing task constraints of platform frequency in the maintenance of postural stability. It appears that several dynamic modes of intermittent coupling in postural control can interchangeably co-exist and are expressed as a function of the control parameter of platform frequency.

Transitions of postural coordination as a function of frequency of the moving support platform

This study was set-up to investigate the multi-segmental organization of human postural control in a dynamic balance task. The focus was on the coupling between the center of mass (CoM) and center of pressure (CoP) as a candidate collective variable that supports maintaining balance on a sinusoidal oscillating platform in the medial-lateral (ML) plane and was continuously scaled up and then down across a frequency range from 0.2Hz to 1.2Hz. The CoM-CoP coordination changed from in-phase to anti-phase and anti-phase to in-phase at a critical frequency (∼0.4Hz to 0.6Hz, respectively) in the scaling up or down of the support surface frequency, showed hysteresis as a function of the direction of frequency change and critical fluctuations at the transition region. There was evidence of head motion independent of CoM motion at the higher platform frequencies and a learning effect on several of the dynamic indices over 2days of practice. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis of CoM-CoP acting as an emergent collective variable that is supported by the faster time scale motions of the joints and their synergies in postural control.

Reactions of Standing Bipeds on Moving Platforms to Keep Their Balance May Increase the Amplitude of Oscillations of Platforms Satisfying Hooke's Law

Consider a person standing on a platform that oscillates laterally, i.e. to the right and left of the person. Assume the platform satisfies Hooke's law. As the platform moves, the person reacts and moves its body attempting to keep its balance. We develop a simple model to study this phenomenon and show that the person, while attempting to keep its balance, may do positive work on the platform and increase the amplitude of its oscillations. The studies in this article are motivated by the oscillations in pedestrian bridges that are sometimes observed when large crowds cross them.

Transition of COM-COP relative phase in a dynamic balance task

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the coordination between center of mass (COM) and center of pressure (COP) could be a candidate collective variable of a dynamical system that captures the organization of the multi-segmental whole body postural control system. We examined the transition of the COM-COP coordination pattern in a moving platform balance control paradigm. 10 young healthy adults stood on a moving surface of support that within a trial was sinusoidally translated in the anterior-posterior direction continuously scaling up and then down its frequency within the range from 0Hz to 3.0Hz. The COP was derived from a single force platform mounted on the moving surface of support. 4 angular joint motions (ankle, knee, hip, and neck) were measured by a 3D motion analysis system that also allowed COM to be derived. The COM-COP coordination changed from in-phase/anti-phase to anti-phase/in-phase at a certain frequency of the support surface, showed hysteresis as a function of the direction of frequency change and higher variability at the transition region. Conversely, the transition of the ankle-hip coordination consistently occurred at 0.3Hz across subjects with little between or within subject variability as a function of transition frequency and before the COM-COP transition. The findings provide evidence that: (1) the transition of the COM-COP coordination pattern is that of a non-equilibrium phase transition with critical fluctuations and hysteresis; and (2) that COM-COP coupling is a candidate collective variable of the multi-segmental whole body postural control system acting on a redundant postural task.

Postural coordination patterns as a function of rhythmical dynamics of the surface of support

This study investigated the organization of postural coordination patterns as a function of the rhythmical dynamics of the surface of support. We examined how the number and nature of the dynamical degrees of freedom in the movement coordination patterns changed as a function of the amplitude and frequency of support surface motion. Young adult subjects stood on a moving platform that was translated sinusoidally in anterior-posterior (AP) direction with the task goal to maintain upright bipedal postural balance. A force platform measured the kinetics at the surface of support and a 3D motion analysis system recorded torso and joint kinematics. Principal components analysis (PCA) identified four components overall, but increasing the average velocity of the support surface reduced the modal number of components of the postural coordination pattern from three to two. The analysis of joint motion loadings on the components revealed that organizational properties of the postural pattern also changed as a function of platform dynamics. PC1 (61.6-73.2 %) was accounted for by ankle, knee, and hip motion at the lowest velocity conditions, but as the velocity increased, ankle and hip variance dominated. In PC2 (24.2-20.2 %), the contribution of knee motion significantly increased while that of ankle motion decreased. In PC3 (9.7-5.1 %) neck motion contributed significantly at the highest velocity condition. Collectively, the findings show that the amplitude and frequency of the motion of the surface of support maps redundantly though preferentially to a small set of postural coordination patterns. The higher platform average velocities led to a reduction in the number of dynamical degrees of freedom of the coordination mode and different weightings of joint motion contributions to each component.

Multijoint error compensation mediates unstable object control

A key feature of skilled object control is the ability to correct performance errors. This process is not straightforward for unstable objects (e.g., inverted pendulum or "stick" balancing) because the mechanics of the object are sensitive to small control errors, which can lead to rapid performance changes. In this study, we have characterized joint recruitment and coordination processes in an unstable object control task. Our objective was to determine whether skill acquisition involves changes in the recruitment of individual joints or distributed error compensation. To address this problem, we monitored stick-balancing performance across four experimental sessions. We confirmed that subjects learned the task by showing an increase in the stability and length of balancing trials across training sessions. We demonstrated that motor learning led to the development of a multijoint error compensation strategy such that after training, subjects preferentially constrained joint angle variance that jeopardized task performance. The selective constraint of destabilizing joint angle variance was an important metric of motor learning. Finally, we performed a combined uncontrolled manifold-permutation analysis to ensure the variance structure was not confounded by differences in the variance of individual joint angles. We showed that reliance on multijoint error compensation increased, whereas individual joint variation (primarily at the wrist joint) decreased systematically with training. We propose a learning mechanism that is based on the accurate estimation of sensory states.

Organization of physiological tremors and coordination solutions to postural pointing on an uneven stance surface

The study investigated the destabilization effect on multi-segment physiological tremors and coordinative control for a postural-suprapostural task under different stance conditions. Twenty volunteers executed postural pointing from a level surface and a seesaw balance board; meanwhile, physiological tremors of the whole postural system and fluctuation movements of fingertip/stance surface were recorded. In reference to level stance, seesaw stance led to much fewer tremor increments of the upper limb and less fluctuation movement of the fingertip than tremor increment of the lower limb and rolling movement of the stance surface. Tremor coupling between the adjacent segments organized differentially with stance surface. In reference to level stance, seesaw stance reinforced tremor coupling of the upper limb but enfeebled the coupling in the arm-lumbar and calf-foot complexes. Stance-related differences in physiological tremors could be explained by characteristic changes in the primary and secondary principal components (PC1 and PC2), with relatively high communality with segment tremors of the lower and upper limbs, respectively. Seesaw stance introduced a prominent 4-8Hz spectral peak in PC1 and potentiated 1-4Hz and 8-12Hz spectral peaks of PC2. Structural reorganization of physiological tremors with stance configuration suggests that seesaw stance involves distinct suprapostural and postural synergies for regulating degree of freedom in joint space.

Effect of inclined support surface on postural strategy during anterior-posterior platform translations

Previous studies have reported that postural coordination patterns change as a function of translation frequency. However, the effect of inclined support surface on postural strategy was not clear. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of inclined support surface on postural strategy during platform translations. Eight healthy adults maintained their balance in stance during support surface translations in the anterior-posterior direction at two different frequencies (0.2 and 0.8[Hz]) and at three different base of support condition (LV: Level, TD: Toe Down, TU: Toe Up). For the kinematic data at slow frequency, subjects rode the platform depending on the movement of platform itself, while at fast frequency subjects fixed their head and center of mass (COM) in space. For the kinetic data at slow frequency, the ankle moment amplitude is similar among all support surface conditions, while at fast frequency the ankle moment amplitude for TU is significantly larger than LV. Result shown that the effect of inclined surface on postural strategy changed according to frequency of support surface translations.

Balance control during continuous rotational perturbations of the support surface

This research investigated the effects of continuous rotational perturbations of the support surface on postural control strategies adopted to maintain upright stance. Four different sinusoidal rotations of the support surface were employed: 0.5 Hz, at 2 degrees; 1.0 Hz at 1 degrees; 1.5 Hz at 4 degrees; and 2 Hz at 3 degrees. Thereby two different velocities of perturbation were obtained: 3.1 degrees s(-1) for 0.5 and 1 Hz, and 18.9 degrees s(-1) for 1.5 and 2 Hz. Results indicate that for the frequencies tested, the effect of the perturbation was attenuated. The amplitude of the body's center of mass (COM) displacement was reduced by adopting a multi-segmental strategy which employed anti-phase ankle and hip joint motion. Our results suggest that at least a two-link model of human stance is required to explain responses when the support surface is rotating.

Compensatory postural adaptations during continuous, variable amplitude perturbations reveal generalized rather than sequence-specific learning

We examined changes in the motor organization of postural control in response to continuous, variable amplitude oscillations evoked by a translating platform and explored whether these changes reflected implicit sequence learning. The platform underwent random amplitude (maximum +/- 15 cm) and constant frequency (0.5 Hz) oscillations. Each trial was composed of three 15-s segments containing seemingly random oscillations. Unbeknownst to participants, the middle segment was repeated in each of 42 trials on the first day of testing and in an additional seven trials completed approximately 24 h later. Kinematic data were used to determine spatial and temporal components of total body centre of mass (COM) and joint segment coordination. Results showed that with repeated trials, participants reduced their magnitude of COM displacement, shifted from a COM phase lag to a phase lead relative to platform motion and increased correlations between ankle/platform motion and hip/platform motion as they shifted from an ankle strategy to a multi-segment control strategy involving the ankle and hip. Maintenance of these changes across days provided evidence for learning. Similar improvements for the random and repeated segments, indicated that participants did not exploit the sequence of perturbations to improve balance control. Rather, the central nervous system may have been tuning into more general features of platform motion. These findings provide important insight into the generalizabilty of improved compensatory balance control with training.

Dynamics of learning new postural patterns: influence on preexisting spontaneous behaviors

In stance, rotations around the hips and ankles typically exhibit a relative phase close to 20 degrees or 180 degrees . In 2 experiments, the authors studied the reciprocal influence of those coordination tendencies with learning an ankle-hip relative phase of 135 degrees . Before, during, and after learning a new mode of coordination, they assessed participants' (N = 24 in each experiment) spontaneous postural patterns with a tracking task in which no specific coordination was required. Learning the 135 degrees phase relation led to persistent modifications of the spontaneous in-phase and antiphase modes. Contrary to the theoretical predictions of the dynamical approach, the initial stability of the preexisting patterns did not influence the difficulty of producing the new mode or the improvement in performance during learning. Initial stability did, however, influence the rate and type of modification of spontaneous patterns. The authors discuss the results in relation to conclusions drawn from bimanual studies.

Multisensory information for postural control: sway-referencing gain shapes center of pressure variability and temporal dynamics

The authors investigated the multisensory control of posture by altering sensory information across the visual and somatosensory systems. The support surface and visual surround were sway-referenced to anterior/posterior center of mass sway and the gain between postural sway and degree of sway referencing was manipulated (gain settings were 0.2, 1.0, and 1.8). These alterations in the sensory environment lead to observed changes in the temporal structure of the center of pressure (COP) trajectories. COP path length increased across gain settings while COP coefficient of variation decreased. The COP became increasingly more deterministic across more challenging sensory organization test (SOT) conditions and with increasing gain, and more nonstationary across more challenging SOT conditions and when the support surface was sway-referenced using a 1.8 gain setting. These findings indicate that changes in the responsiveness of the support surface and/or visual surround within each of the sway-referenced SOT conditions had functional consequences for the control of posture as evidenced by the variations in postural sway dynamics.

Postural fluctuations during pointing from a unilateral or bilateral stance

An experiment was conducted to compare the effects of bilateral and unilateral stance on postural fluctuations and intralimb coordination during active balance control. Fifteen participants stood bilaterally and unilaterally while conducting a pointing task with an outstretched arm. Excursion of center of foot pressure (CoP) and limb movements were recorded with a force plate and eight dual-axis accelerometers, respectively. Compared to bilateral stance, unilateral stance resulted in wider CoP trajectories and greater postural fluctuations, especially in the lower limbs. The limb-dependent postural fluctuations during unilateral stance were associated with an increased coupling between the upper limb segments and a decreased coupling between the segments of the stance leg. Unilateral stance further resulted in greater regularity and spectral changes in postural fluctuations of the trunk and lower limb due to increased central oscillations (8-15 Hz). The observed structural differences in postural fluctuations between unilateral and bilateral stance strongly suggested that the postural control system modulates joint stiffness in a stance-dependent manner. Probably, in unilateral stance, attentive control was shifted to the stance leg at the expense of increasing arm stiffness to reduce movement redundancy.

Optimization model predictions for postural coordination modes

This paper examines the ability of the dynamic optimization model to predict changes between in-phase and anti-phase postural modes of coordination and to evaluate influence of two particular environmental and intentional constraints on postural strategy. The task studied was based on an experimental paradigm that consisted in tracking a target motion with the head. An original optimal procedure was developed for cyclic problems to calculate hip and ankle angular trajectories during postural sway with a minimum torque change criterion. Optimization results give a good description of the sudden bifurcation phase between in-phase and anti-phase postural coordination modes in visual target tracking. Transition frequency and predicted effects of environmental and intentional constraints are also in line with experimental observations described in existing literature. In particular, these investigations pointed out that postural planning process can be related to the minimization of a dynamic cost criterion with an equilibrium constraint. In conclusion, the optimization technique is well suited for the prediction of postural modes of coordination and seems to offer many opportunities for better comprehension of neuromuscular movement control.

Regularity in an environment produces an internal torque pattern for biped balance control

In this paper, we present a control method for achieving biped static balance under unknown periodic external forces whose periods are only known. In order to maintain static balance adaptively in an uncertain environment, it is essential to have information on the ground reaction forces. However, when the biped is exposed to a steady environment that provides an external force periodically, uncertain factors on the regularity with respect to a steady environment are gradually clarified using learning process, and finally a torque pattern for balancing motion is acquired. Consequently, static balance is maintained without feedback from ground reaction forces and achieved in a feedforward manner.

On Modeling Center of Foot Pressure Distortion Through a Medium

The center of foot pressure (COP) is a commonly used output measure of the postural control system as it is indicative of the systems stability. A dense piece of foam, i.e., a sponge, can be used to emulate random environmental conditions that distort the ground reaction forces received and interpreted by the cutaneous sensors in the feet; thus introducing uncertainty into the control system. In this paper, the density and size of the sponge was selected such that a subject's weight did not cause full compression. In general, the COP is measured from the bottom of the sponge. As the sponge is used to distort ground reaction forces, it is reasonable then to assume that the COP signal would also be distorted. The use of other sensory information to identify state of balance, and compute necessary balance adjustments, is therefore required. In addition to a sponge, many different types of specialized footwear and inserts are used for people with peripheral neuropathy, such as diabetics. However, it is difficult to design diabetic footwear without a better understanding of the mechanical and physiological effects that different surfaces typical of outdoor terrains, such as a sponge, which cannot be predicted without the sense of the foot, have on balance. Therefore, the goal of this study was to investigate the change of the COP signal from the top and bottom of the sponge. Portable force sensing mats from Vista Medical were used to obtain the COP from the top and bottom of the sponge. The COP measured on the bottom of the sponge is not the same as the COP measured on the top, particularly in the medial-lateral direction. Several linear and nonlinear models were used to identify the unknown plant; i.e., the sponge. Overall, the nonlinear neural network method had superior performance when compared with the linear models. Thus, the results indicate that the signals from the top and bottom of the sponge are in fact different, and furthermore, they are nonlinearly related. A nonlinear mathematical model is proposed which describes COP distortion through a medium such as a sponge. Although the values for the model parameters determined were for a particular sponge, this study suggests that a neural network plant identification model may be applied to any medium other than the sponge; the information can then be used to determine how the balance control model is affected given the sensory information received.

Organization of compensatory postural coordination patterns

The authors investigated whether compensatory postural coordination patterns are organized according to the same dynamical principles as are nonequilibrium phase transitions. Eight participants were asked to maintain upright balance on a moving platform that was sinusoidally translated in the anterior-posterior direction and was systematically increased and decreased 0.19 Hz as a step function every 10 platform cycles through the frequency range 0.19-1.46 Hz. At low platform frequencies, all participants exhibited small joint angular motions with high variability, and the relative phase between the joint motions exhibited drifting patterns and large fluctuations. As platform frequency increased, the amplitude of joint motion increased systematically and joint-specific oscillatory patterns emerged. The findings provided no evidence for a Hopf bifurcation or hysteresis in the transitions of postural coordination modes, however, or, more generally, a basis for distinguishing the relevance of linear versus nonlinear models of postural control.

Learning to coordinate redundant degrees of freedom in a dynamic balance task

The present study investigated Bernstein's [The co-ordination and regulation of movements, 1967] proposal regarding the three stages of learning in the changing coordination and control of redundant joint-space degrees of freedom. Six participants practiced maintaining balance on a moving platform that was sinusoidally translated in the anterior-posterior direction for 30 trials on day 1 and 10 trials on day 2. At the beginning of practice, the motion of the torso and limb segments was less coherent in the attempt to compensate for the movement of the support surface in retaining a balanced posture. However, with practice, the organization of a compensatory postural coordination mode became highly coherent and also progressively utilized the passive, inertial forces generated by the movement of the support surface. The findings support the propositions that: (a) the pathway of change over time in the coordination pattern of the torso and joint motions depends on the task goal and constraints to action and (b) the changes in limb and torso motion are in support of the learning of a global body center of mass/platform dynamic.