[Effects of 7 d -6 degrees bed-rest on postural equilibrium].
OBJECTIVE
To quantitatively assess the effects of 7 d -6 degrees head-down bed-rest (HDBR) on postural equilibrium and to investigate the contributions of vestibular, somatosensory and visual informations to postural equilibrium.


METHODS
Eight healthy males, aged 33 - 42 years, were exposed to -6 degrees head-down tilt bed rest for 7 d. Sensory Organization Test (SOT) and Motor Coordination Test (MCT) were measured before and after HDBR, and day 4 of recovery.


RESULTS
Equilibrium scores of SOT in condition 1 (eyes opened, platform and visual scence environment fixed), 5 (eyes closed visual scence environment fixed, platform movable) were significantly lower as compared with pre-HDBR value, and recovered to pre-HDBR level on day 4 of recovery. Postural strategy scores of SOT in condition 1, 2 (eyes closed, platform and visual scence environment fixed) and 3 (eyes opened, platform fixed, visual scence environment movable) were significantly lower as compared with pre-HDBR value, and recovered to pre-HDBR level on day 4 of recovery. The dependence of somatosensory and visual information (ratio pair codition 2/condition 1, condition 3/condition 1 in sensory analysis) was significantly higher as compared with pre-HDBR value, and recovered on day 4 of recovery. Mean SOT alignment scores in conditions 1, 4 (eyes opened, visual scence environment fixed, platform movable) and 6 (eyes opened, platform and visual scence environment movable) were significantly higher as compared with pre-HDBR value, and only the scores of conditions 1, 6 were recovered on day 4 of recovery, but that of condition 4 did not. Mean postural-evoked response latencies of MCT were not significantly different as compared with pre-HDBR value.


CONCLUSIONS
7 d -6 degrees head-down tilt bed-rest has significant effects on postural equilibrium. The contributions of somatosensory and visual informations to postural equilibrium are increased.
Guo
L G
LG
Institute of Space Medico-Engineering, Beijing 100094, China.
Guo
Z F
ZF
Xie
J S
JS
Wang
L J
LJ
D000328:Adult; D001510:Bed Rest; D018475:Head-Down Tilt; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D011434:Proprioception / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology