ABSTRACT
Resumen: El estudio del control postural humano mediante técnicas mecano-estadísticas, permite identificar comportamientos dinámicos con características de persistencia y anti-persistencia. Tales comportamientos, pueden ser interpretados como variabilidad tiempo dependiente en los sistemas de control y algunos indicadores que dan cuenta de éstos, son el coeficiente de difusión y el exponente de ajuste obtenidos con la técnica de Análisis de Difusión del Estabilograma (ADE). Se utilizó una plataforma de fuerza para los registros estabilométricos y se aplicó el ADE con el objeto de discriminar el comportamiento temporal de la variabilidad del centro de presión, en posición bípeda cuasi-estática con y sin restricción visual (Ojos cerrados y Ojos abiertos) en un grupo de 22 escolares en edad crítica (11,2±1,5 años) de maduración del proceso de control. Los resultados obtenidos en los coeficiente de difusión (Ds, DƖ) y exponentes de ajuste (Hs, HƖ ) en ambas condiciones visuales, caracterizan claramente comportamientos diferenciados para cada fases de la gráfica del ADE, y se establece diferencias significativas en los indicadores Ds y Hs, al comparar la excursión del COP con y sin restricción visual. El ADE nos permite identificar un comportamiento de sistema de control postural similar al de los adultos, modelado como un movimiento browniano fraccionario de dos fases.
Abstract: The human postural control study through statistical mechanic techniques identifies dynamic behavior with characteristics of persistence and anti-persistence. Such behaviors are interpreted like time-dependent variability of the control systems, and indicators that reflect these ones, are diffusion coefficient and scaling exponent obtained with stabilogram diffusion analysis (SDA) technique. A force platform was used to obtain stabilometry records and SDA was applied in order to discriminate the temporal behavior of the variability in quasi-static bipedal position in a group of 22 students in critical age (11,2 ± 1,5 years old) for postural control maturity, between eyes-closed and eyes-open conditions. The results of diffusion coefficients (Ds, DƖ ) and scaling exponents (Hs, HƖ ) in both visual condition have two distinct phases from ADE graphic and establish statistically significant differences for D s and H s, when comparing the displacement of COP between open eyes and closed eyes. The SDA allows us to identify a behavior of postural control system similar to adults, modeled like a two-phase fractional Brownian motion.
ABSTRACT
Even though frequency analysis of body sway is widely applied in clinical studies, the lack of standardized procedures concerning power spectrum estimation may provide unreliable descriptors. Stabilometric tests were applied to 35 subjects (20-51 years, 54-95 kg, 1.6-1.9 m) and the power spectral density function was estimated for the anterior-posterior center of pressure time series. The median frequency was compared between power spectra estimated according to signal partitioning, sampling rate, test duration, and detrending methods. The median frequency reliability for different test durations was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient. When increasing number of segments, shortening test duration or applying linear detrending, the median frequency values increased significantly up to 137%. Even the shortest test duration provided reliable estimates as observed with the intraclass coefficient (0.74-0.89 confidence interval for a single 20-s test). Clinical assessment of balance may benefit from a standardized protocol for center of pressure spectral analysis that provides an adequate relationship between resolution and variance. An algorithm to estimate center of pressure power density spectrum is also proposed.
Subject(s)
Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Young Adult , Pressure , Postural Balance/physiology , Posture/physiology , Algorithms , Fourier Analysis , Young AdultABSTRACT
According to cross-sectional studies, decreased postural stability, assessed by center of pressure (COP) sway, has been remarkable over the past 60 years, and has become one of the impairment factors for quality of life in the elderly. In the present study, in order to determine whether exercise training, consisting of bicycle ergometer and strength training inhibits decreased postural stability for elderly individuals (60 years of age or more), we investigated changes in COP sway and plantar flexors muscle volume. Healthy male (n=9) and female (n=8) subjects aged 62 to 76 yrs participated in the present study. Subjects were requested to maintain a quiet standing barefoot position on a force platform (type 9281B, Kistler) with their eyes opened or closed. Mean velocity of COP (COP sway length/time) was calculated from anterior-posterior COP sway from force platform data. From the spectral analysis of COP sway, low (0-1 Hz) and high (1 -10 Hz) frequency components of COP series were extracted. The muscle volume of the plantar flexors muscle group was estimated from multi-regression analysis based on measured muscle thickness at the lower leg posterior site using an ultrasonographic apparatus (SSD-500, Aloka) . Mean velocity of COP significantly (P< 0.05) decreased due to training, and this was accompanied by a decrease in COP sway high frequency components. On the other hand, COP sway low frequency components and muscle volume did not change. These findings suggest that an inhibition of decreased postural stability in the elderly is not mainly related to muscle volume, but to improvement of a feedback system from somatosensory function. With respect to the elderly, who have a larger mean velocity of COP, however, postural stability could be related to muscle volume.