title: Short-latency muscle response patterns to multi-directional, unpredictable perturbations to balance applied to the arm are context dependent.
abstract: A number of studies have shown that sensory inputs from the hand can have a profound effect in stabilizing upright posture. This suggests that the central nervous system can extract information about body motion and external forces acting on the body from cutaneous sensory signals. We have recently shown that the central nervous system determines the direction of an unpredictable force applied to the hand so rapidly that it is able to activate ankle muscles in advance of the perturbing effect that this force has at the ankles. In this study we investigate whether this rapid change in activation of lower limb muscles is an invariant response determined by the pattern of somatosensory information arising from sensory receptors in the hand or whether it adapts to changes in postural stability. We manipulated lateral stability of upright stance by changing stance width which had no effect on the activation of upper limb muscles or hand kinematics, but produced profound changes in the activation patterns of lower limb muscles when perturbations were in the medial/lateral direction without affecting the activation patterns of muscles when perturbations were in the anterior/posterior direction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, McGill University, 475 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, Quebec H2S 1S4, Canada. Electronic address: af5yr@virginia.edu.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Forghani
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, 3654 Promenade Sir-William-Osler, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y5, Canada. Electronic address: richard.preuss@mcgill.ca.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Preuss
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, McGill University, 475 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, Quebec H2S 1S4, Canada. Electronic address: theodore.milner@mcgill.ca.
authors.forename: Theodore Edgar
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Milner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001132:Arm / Q000502:physiology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004576:Electromyography; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology; D056228:Feedback, Sensory / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ankle; arm; balance; force perturbation