Tall Tales of Balance: The Influence of Height on Postural Control Measures.

IF 0.9 4区医学 Q4 NEUROSCIENCES

Motor Control Pub Date : 2025-03-12 DOI:10.1123/mc.2024-0132

Kevin D Dames, Sutton B Richmond

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Increased sway within a stationary base of support (BoS) is often interpreted as worse postural control. However, larger persons may have larger feet, facilitating broader sway patterns within their wider/longer base. Time to boundary (TtB) incorporates foot placement dimensions into the calculation and, thus, may not be confounded by dissimilar anthropometric features.

Methods: Ninety-seven healthy adults stood quietly on a force platform for 150 s with their feet together while barefoot. BoS characteristics, center of pressure motion, and TtB were calculated and correlated with body height for eyes open and closed conditions.

Results: BoS width, length, and total area positively correlated with body height. Path length and sway area were positively correlated with height for both vision conditions, with stronger correlations observed with eyes closed. At the same time, TtB was not correlated with height in either visual condition. Consequently, the tallest 20 individuals in the sample displayed greater path length and sway areas but equal TtB as the shortest 20 persons.

Conclusion: Observed differences in position-based center of pressure measures could be an artifact of body size inequality not postural (in)stability. Meanwhile, TtB is normalized to BoS and is, therefore, not confounded by anthropometric differences.

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来源期刊

Motor Control 医学-神经科学

CiteScore

1.80

自引率

9.10%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： Motor Control (MC), a peer-reviewed journal, provides a multidisciplinary examination of human movement across the lifespan. To keep you abreast of current developments in the field of motor control, it offers timely coverage of important topics, including issues related to motor disorders. This international journal publishes many types of research papers, from clinical experimental to modeling and theoretical studies. These papers come from such varied disciplines as biomechanics, kinesiology, neurophysiology, neuroscience, psychology, physical medicine, and rehabilitation. Motor Control, the official journal of the International Society of Motor Control, is designed to provide a multidisciplinary forum for the exchange of scientific information on the control of human movement across the lifespan, including issues related to motor disorders. Motor Control encourages submission of papers from a variety of disciplines including, but not limited to, biomechanics, kinesiology, neurophysiology, neuroscience, psychology, physical medicine, and rehabilitation. This peer-reviewed journal publishes a wide variety of types of research papers including clinical experimental, modeling, and theoretical studies. To be considered for publication, papers should clearly demonstrate a contribution to the understanding of control of movement. In addition to publishing research papers, Motor Control publishes review articles, quick communications, commentaries, target articles, and book reviews. When warranted, an entire issue may be devoted to a specific topic within the area of motor control.