title: The structure of somatosensory information for human postural control.
abstract: The goal of the present study was to determine the properties of the somatosensory stimulus that alter its temporal coupling to body sway. Six standing subjects were tested while touching a metal plate positioned either directly in front of or lateral to the subject. In each condition, the plate moved 4 mm at 0.2 Hz in either the medial-lateral (ML) or anterior-posterior direction (AP). The results showed that coupling between body sway and touch plate movement was strongest when the touch plate moved in a direction along the longitudinal axis of the arm. Coupling strength was weaker when the touch plate moved perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the arm. The results consistently show that a radial expansion stimulus was more effective than a lamellar-type stimulus at the fingertip. Moreover, somatosensory information from a surface is interpreted in terms of the orientation of the contact limb and the potential degrees of freedom available through its movement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Jeka
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oie
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Lackner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*