Detecting postural responses to sinusoidal sensory inputs: a statistical approach

• Published in: IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering Vol. 12; no. 3; pp. 360 - 366
• Main Authors: Sparto, P.J., Jasko, J.G., Loughlin, P.J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.09.2004; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Adult; Algorithms; Biomedical engineering; Biomedical optical imaging; Biomedical signal processing; Control systems; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted - methods; Female; Frequency; Humans; Image motion analysis; Male; Models, Biological; Models, Statistical; Movement - physiology; Optical noise; Optical sensors; Optical signal processing; Oscillometry - methods; Periodicity; Perturbation; Photic Stimulation - methods; Physical Examination - methods; Posture - physiology; Rehabilitation; Statistical tests; Testing; Translations; Visual inspection
• ISSN: 1534-4320; 1558-0210
• DOI: 10.1109/TNSRE.2004.834203

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.