Visual control in the upright standing position The role of static and kinetic visual information

• Published in: Equilibrium Research Vol. 47; no. Suppl-3; pp. 125 - 131
• Main Authors: Kozima, Toshimi, Hiramatsu, Takashi, Mori, Yosirou, Tokita, Takashi, Mizuta, Keisuke, Koizumi, Hikari, Matsubara, Sigenori, Sirato, Hiromichi, Akagi, Hirofumi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: Japan Society for Equilibrium Research 1988
• Subjects: stabilometry; static and kinetic visual information; stroboscopic illumination; visual control in the upright standing position
• ISSN: 0385-5716; 1882-577X
• DOI: 10.3757/jser.47.Suppl-3_125

The role of static and kinetic visual information in the regulation of the upright standing position was studied in 7 healthy subjects. The subject stood on a stabilometer with the feet close together and gazed at the visual pattern (11 vertical stripes drawn at intervals of 4 cm). The postural sway under normal illumination, stroboscopic illumination at a frequency of 10 Hz, 5 Hz, and 1.4 Hz, and in darkness was recorded for 30 seconds with an X-Y recorder and stored in the disk of a microcomputer. On the basis of the stored data, concerning the area, unit locus length, forward-backward and right-left diameters, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis of amplitude, the probability density distribution and power spectrum were calculated by a specially designed program. 1. The size of body sway under stroboscopic illumination at a frequency of 1.4 Hz was larger than in the dark. Examinations related to sway-area, for-ward-backward and right-left diameters, and standard deviation of amplitude probability density distribution showed similar results. 2. Kurtosis tended to be small under stroboscopic illumination at a frequency of 1.4 Hz. 3. The rate of low frequency (0.033-0.195 Hz) in the power spectra of body sway under stroboscopic illumination at a frequency of 1.4 Hz was larger than in the dark. Static visual information without kinetic visual information caused destabilization of posture regulation. Kinetic visual information plays a major role in visual control in the upright standing position, especially in the control of body sway at low frequency.