Differential joint coordination in the tasks of standing up and sitting down

We studied similarities and differences in the use of goal-equivalent patterns of joint coordination to stand up and sit down from different support surfaces, performed without vision. Sagittal plane motion of major body segments was measured and joint angles for the left upper and lower extremities and the trunk were calculated. We used a modeling strategy relating motion in the redundant space of the joints to motion of individual performance variables, such as the center of mass (CM) or head, and determined how the variability of joint combinations across trials was structured; i.e. variations in joint combinations leading to a consistent value of a performance variable (goal-equivalent variability) and variations resulting in variability of the performance variable (non goal-equivalent variability). We found the variability of joint combinations to be selectively channeled into goal-equivalent directions, leading to stable horizontal motion of the CM and of the head, during both standing up and sitting down. In contrast, when evaluating the effect of joint combination variability on the control of vertical CM motion, we found differences in the variability components between standing up and sitting down. In general, more variable vertical CM motion occurred. An important finding was an enhanced use of goal-equivalent joint combinations under challenging task conditions, whether standing up or sitting down.