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Medicine and Health Sciences

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2013

Balance

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Postural Responses To Unexpected Perturbations Of Balance During Reaching, Hari Trivedi, Julia Leonard, Lena Ting, Paul Stapley Jan 2013

Postural Responses To Unexpected Perturbations Of Balance During Reaching, Hari Trivedi, Julia Leonard, Lena Ting, Paul Stapley

Dr Paul J Stapley

To study the interaction between feedforward and feedback modes of postural control, we investigated postural responses during unexpected perturbations of the support surface that occurred during forward reaching in a standing position. We examined postural responses in lower limb muscles of nine human subjects. Baseline measures were obtained when subjects executed reaching movements to a target placed in front of them (R condition) and during postural responses to forward and backward support-surface perturbations (no reaching, P condition) during quiet stance. Perturbations were also given at different delays after the onset of reaching movements (RP conditions) as well as with the …


Bilateral Vestibular Loss In Cats Leads To Active Destabilization Of Balance During Pitch And Roll Rotations Of The Support Surface, Jane Macpherson, Dirk Everaert, Paul Stapley, Lena Ting Jan 2013

Bilateral Vestibular Loss In Cats Leads To Active Destabilization Of Balance During Pitch And Roll Rotations Of The Support Surface, Jane Macpherson, Dirk Everaert, Paul Stapley, Lena Ting

Dr Paul J Stapley

Although the balance difficulties accompanying vestibular loss are well known, the underlying cause remains unclear. We examined the role of vestibular inputs in the automatic postural response (APR) to pitch and roll rotations of the support surface in freely standing cats before and in the first week after bilateral labyrinthectomy. Support surface rotations accelerate the body center of mass toward the downhill side. The normal APR consists of inhibition in the extensors of the uphill limbs and excitation in the downhill limbs to decelerate the body and maintain the alignment of the limbs with respect to earth-vertical. After vestibular lesion, …


Bilateral Vestibular Loss Leads To Active Destabilization Of Balance During Voluntary Head Turns In The Standing Cat, Paul Stapley, Lena Ting, Chen Kuifu, Dirk Everaert, Jane Macpherson Jan 2013

Bilateral Vestibular Loss Leads To Active Destabilization Of Balance During Voluntary Head Turns In The Standing Cat, Paul Stapley, Lena Ting, Chen Kuifu, Dirk Everaert, Jane Macpherson

Dr Paul J Stapley

The purpose of this study was to determine the source of postural instability in labyrinthectomized cats during lateral head turns. Cats were trained to maintain the head in a forward orientation and then perform a rapid, large-amplitude head turn to left or right in yaw, while standing freely on a force platform. Head turns were biomechanically complex with the primary movement in the yaw plane accompanied by an ipsilateral ear-down roll and nose-down pitch. Cats used a strategy of pushing off by activating extensors of the contralateral forelimb while using all four limbs to produce a rotational moment of force …