Article

Previous research has shown that when the COM is stabilized without participant
awareness, COP displacements increase. This finding suggests that postural sway
under normal conditions may be exploratory and used as a means of acquiring
sensory information. However, based on the theory that posture is controlled
using internal models, it could be argued that increases in COP displacement
reflect errors that arise as the central nervous system attempts to adapt the
internal model used to control posture to the new conditions. The current study
provided an explicit verbal cue to the participants indicating how and when COM
stabilization would occur. Based on evidence suggesting that explicit verbal cues
can reduce errors when the dynamics of the task are altered, we hypothesized that
when participants were aware of COM stabilization, COP displacements would be
reduced. However, we found that anterior-posterior COP displacements increased
independent of cueing, suggesting that increases in COP displacements with
locking were not the result of an attempt to adapt the internal model of postural
control. The results provide further support for an exploratory role of postural
sway.
CI - Copyright (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS