BACKGROUND The effect of dopaminergic therapy on balance in Parkinson's disease (PD) remains unclear, including previous studies that excluded the effect of dyskinesias or other involuntary movements on postural sway. Additionally, medication's effects may differ between fallers and non-fallers. In this study, the authors quantify the effect of dopaminergic medication on postural balance (sway)...

BACKGROUND Diminished control of standing balance, traditionally indicated by greater postural sway magnitude and speed, is associated with falls in older adults. Tai Chi (TC) is a multisystem intervention that reduces fall risk, yet its impact on sway measures vary considerably. We hypothesized that TC improves the integrated function of multiple control systems influencing balance, quantifiab...

Background: Vision, vestibular sense, proprioception and muscle strength are required to maintain balance. However, gender could also play a crucial role in postural sway. Objectives: This study was used examine (i) the impact of gender, surface type, vision on sway; (ii) effects limb symmetry (iii) understand stance, type alterations dynamic sway alterations. Methods: cross-sectional which you...

30 Explicit visual feedback on postural sway is often used in balance assessment and training. However, up31 weighting of visual information may mask impairments of other sensory systems. We therefore aimed to 32 determine whether the effects of somatosensory, vestibular and proprioceptive manipulations on 33 mediolateral balance are reduced by explicit visual feedback on mediolateral sway of t...

When humans are asked to stand normally, they are not completely motionless. Rather, small amounts of body movement, termed postural sway, can be observed. Although the postural sway of standing has been well described, the manner in which this sway is neurally controlled and its influence in tasks involving postural re-stabilization are not known. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to inves...

Motor variability is an inherent feature of all human movements, and describes the system's stability and rigidity during the performance of functional motor tasks such as balancing. In order to ensure successful task execution, the nervous system is thought to be able to flexibly select the appropriate level of variability. However, it remains unknown which neurophysiological pathways are util...

OBJECTIVES AND METHOD The relation between body sway recorded through a stabilometric platform and the subjective report of steadiness was studied in 20 young and 20 elderly subjects and 20 neuropathic and 20 parkinsonian patients standing upright. The trials were performed under two stances (feet apart, feet together) and two visual conditions (eyes open, eyes closed). At the end of each trial...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that healthy young adults are able to decrease their standing postural sway when an additional postural visual task, such as reading, is performed. OBJECTIVE In this study, we investigated postural sway during dual tasks in young and elderly adults. METHODS Twelve healthy active elderly adults (aged 65-75 years) and 12 healthy young adults (aged 22-39 ...

Poor balance control and increased fall risk have been reported in people with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Traditional body sway measures are unable to describe underlying postural control mechanism. In the current study, we used stabilogram diffusion analysis to examine the mechanism under which balance is altered in DPN patients under local-control (postural muscle control) and cent...

By computerized static posturography with sway frequency analysis, subclinical effects of lead on postural balance was examined in 29 female workers (lead workers) employed at a glass factory for 3-17 (mean 7.9) years in Beijing, China, in relation to brainstem function assessed by brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP). Their blood lead concentrations ranged from 26 to 79 (mean 55.7) micro...