AIM Osteoporosis can cause vertebral fractures, which might lead to a flexed posture, impaired postural control and consequently increased fall risk. Therefore, the aim of the present review was to examine whether postural control of patients with osteoporosis, vertebral fractures, thoracic kyphosis and flexed posture is affected. Furthermore, instruments measuring postural control were evaluat...

Examining postural control while simultaneously performing a cognitive, or suprapostural task, has shown a fairly consistent trend of improving postural control in young healthy adults and provides insight into postural control mechanisms used in everyday life. However, the role of attention driven by explicit verbal instructions while dual-tasking is less understood. Therefore, the purpose of ...

BACKGROUND The maintenance of balance and body orientation in humans is guaranteed by the adequate functioning of the postural control system. The investigation of this control has awakened the interest of professionals from several fields such as Physical Therapy, Physical Education, Engineering, Physics, Medicine, Psychology, and others. OBJECTIVES The purposes of this study are to revise t...

BACKGROUND Recently, several studies have reported age-associated increases in muscle coactivation during postural control. A rigid posture induced by strong muscle coactivation reduces the degree of freedom to be organized by the postural control system. The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of balance training on muscle coactivation during postural control in older adults. MET...

Postural control is significantly affected by the postural base of support; however, the effects on postural adaptation are not well understood. Here we investigated how adaptation and transfer of anticipatory postural control are affected by stance width. Subjects made reaching movements in a novel dynamic environment while holding the handle of a force-generating robotic arm. Each subject ini...

Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) elicited during execution of voluntary movements undergo modification in their amplitude ('gating'). We have studies SEP changes during a motor task that includes anticipatory postural adjustment and focal movement. Upright standing subjects were performing fast forward elevation of one arm. The electrical stimulus was presented over the ipsilateral poster...

Nonlinear analysis of standing postural control in healthy adults reveals a chaotic structure of the center of pressure time series. Independent sitting is the first controlled posture during development, and can also be examined for nonlinear dynamics. We performed a principal component analysis on variables extracted from the center of pressure (COP) time series of infants sitting independent...

This study investigated the relationship between fear of falling (FOF) and qualitative and quantitative postural control in Parkinson's disease (PD). Fifty-eight nondemented PD patients were studied along with age-matched healthy controls. The degree of FOF was estimated using the Activities-specific Balance Confidence scale. Qualitative postural control was evaluated using a component of the U...