SAFETYLIT WEEKLY UPDATE

We compile citations and summaries of about 400 new articles every week.
RSS Feed

HELP: Tutorials | FAQ
CONTACT US: Contact info

Search Results

Journal Article

Citation

Yiou E, Fourcade P, Artico R, Caderby T. Exp. Brain Res. 2015; 234(6): 1363-1375.

Affiliation

CIAMS Laboratory, EA 4532, UFR STAPS, University of Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, eric.yiou@u-psud.fr.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00221-015-4319-4

PMID

25990822

Abstract

Many daily motor tasks have to be performed under a temporal pressure constraint. This study aimed to explore the influence of such constraint on motor performance and postural stability during gait initiation. Young healthy participants initiated gait at maximal velocity under two conditions of temporal pressure: in the low-pressure condition, gait was self-initiated (self-initiated condition, SI); in the high-pressure condition, it was initiated as soon as possible after an acoustic signal (reaction-time condition, RT). Gait was initiated with and without an environmental constraint in the form of an obstacle to be cleared placed in front of participants.

RESULTS showed that the duration of postural adjustments preceding swing heel-off ("anticipatory postural adjustments", APAs) was shorter, while their amplitude was larger in RT compared to SI. These larger APAs allowed the participants to reach equivalent postural stability and motor performance in both RT and SI. In addition, the duration of the execution phase of gait initiation increased greatly in the condition with an obstacle to be cleared (OBST) compared to the condition without an obstacle (NO OBST), thereby increasing lateral instability and thus involving larger mediolateral APA. Similar effects of temporal pressure were obtained in NO OBST and OBST. This study shows the adaptability of the postural system to temporal pressure in healthy young adults initiating gait. The outcome of this study may provide a basis for better understanding the aetiology of balance impairments with the risk of falling in frail populations while performing daily complex tasks involving a whole-body progression.


Language: en

NEW SEARCH


All SafetyLit records are available for automatic download to Zotero & Mendeley
Print