Detecting postural responses to sinusoidal sensory inputs: a statistical approach.
A common way for understanding sensory integration in postural control is to provide sinusoidal perturbations to the sensory systems involved in balance. However, not all subjects exhibit a response to the perturbation. Determining whether or not a response has occurred is usually done qualitatively, e.g., by visual inspection of the power spectrum. In this paper, we present the application of a statistical test for quantifying whether or not a postural sway response is present. The test uses an F-statistic for determining if there is significant power in postural sway data at the stimulus frequency. In order to describe the application of this method, 20 subjects viewed sinusoidal anterior-posterior (A-P) optic flow at 0.1 and 0.25 Hz, while their A-P head translation was measured. The test showed that significant postural responses were detected at the stimulus frequency in 12/20 subjects at 0.1 Hz and 13/20 subjects at 0.25 Hz.
Department of Physical Therapy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. psparto@pitt.edu
Patrick J
PJ
Sparto
Jeffrey G
JG
Jasko
Patrick J
PJ
Loughlin
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009991:Oscillometry / Q000379:methods; D010507:Periodicity; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000379:methods*; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*