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Body sway and sensory motor coupling adaptation in children: effects of distance manipulation
1Departamento de Educação Física, Universidade Estadual Paulista, UNESP, Rio Claro, SP 13506-900, Brazil. dangod@rc.unesp.br
Insights
Children
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Biomechanics
- Sensory integration
Background:
- Postural control is crucial for daily activities.
- Visual information significantly influences body sway.
- Understanding developmental changes in sensory reweighting is important.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the coupling between visual information and body sway.
- To examine age-related differences in postural control.
- To assess the influence of distance from a visual stimulus on body sway.
Main Methods:
- Sixty children (4-14 years) and 10 young adults participated.
- Participants stood in a moving room oscillated at .2 and .5 Hz.
- Body sway was measured at various distances (.25-1.5 m) from a front wall.
Main Results:
- Visual information consistently induced body sway across all participants and conditions.
- Younger children exhibited greater body sway than older participants.
- The strength of visual-body sway coupling increased with age, while room movement influence decreased.
- Distance dependency in coupling and room influence was observed up to age 10.
Conclusions:
- Postural control development involves age-dependent reweighting of sensory cues.
- Children's ability to modulate sensory input for balance improves with age.
- Visual-somatosensory integration plays a key role in developing postural stability.
Abstract:
The purpose of this investigation was to examine coupling between visual information and body sway in children and young adults at various distances from a moving room front wall. Sixty children (from 4 to 14 years old) and 10 young adults stood upright inside a moving room that was oscillated at .2 and .5 Hz, at distances of .25, .5, 1, and 1.5 m from a front wall. Visual information induced body sway in all participants in all conditions. Young children swayed more than older participants, whether the moving room was oscillated or not. Coupling between visual information and body sway became stronger and the room movement influence became weaker with age. Up to the age of 10, coupling strength between visual information and body sway and the room movement influence were distance dependent. Postural control development appears to be dependent on how children reweight the contribution of varying sensory cues available in environment in order to control body sway.
