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Updated: Jun 19, 2026
Experimental Methods to Study Human Postural Control
Published on: September 11, 2019
Age-related changes in postural control sensory reweighting
Natalia Madalena Rinaldi1, Paula Fávaro Polastri, José Angelo Barela
1Institute of Bioscience, São Paulo State University, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil.
Insights
Children adapt to visual stimuli affecting balance, but younger children show less calibrated responses. This study explores visual information and body sway in postural control across age groups.
Area of Science:
- Human movement science
- Developmental psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Postural control relies on integrating sensory information, primarily visual, vestibular, and somatosensory inputs.
- The ability to adapt sensory weighting based on environmental demands is crucial for maintaining balance.
- Understanding developmental changes in sensory integration is key to comprehending motor development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the adaptive capacity in the coupling between visual information and body sway during postural control in children of different ages.
- To compare the adaptive responses of 4-, 8-, and 12-year-old children and adults to altered visual-spatial conditions.
- To examine how children's ability to down-weight visual influences evolves with age.
Main Methods:
- Participants (children aged 4, 8, 12 years, and adults) underwent a moving room paradigm with varying visual stimulus parameters (frequency, velocity, amplitude).
- Quantitative analysis of body sway using measures like gain, phase, Sensory-to-Feedback System Analysis (SFSA), and transient gain.
- Assessment of the relationship between visual stimulus changes and postural responses.
Main Results:
- Children and adults demonstrated adaptive capabilities, reducing reliance on visual information when stimulus amplitude/velocity increased.
- A developmental trend was observed, with 4-year-olds showing less calibrated responses compared to 8-year-olds, 12-year-olds, and adults.
- Younger children remained more susceptible to visual stimulus perturbations than older children and adults.
Conclusions:
- Postural control exhibits adaptive plasticity in response to changing visual environments across development.
- The maturation of sensory integration and adaptation mechanisms continues through childhood and adolescence.
- Age-related differences in down-weighting visual information highlight the ongoing development of sophisticated postural control strategies.
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to investigate the adaptive process in the coupling between visual information and body sway in children postural control. Twenty-seven children from 4-, 8- and 12-year-olds and ten adults stood upright inside of a moving room. In the first 2 min, the room was moved continuously at frequency of 0.2 Hz, velocity of 0.6 cm/s and amplitude of 0.5 cm. In the minute subsequent the room was moved with velocity of 3.5 and amplitude of 3.2 and in the last 2 min with velocity of 0.6 cm/s and amplitude of 0.5 cm. Gain, phase, SFSA and transient gain were used to examine the relationship between sensory information and body sway. The results showed that children and adults were capable to adapt to the changes of visual stimulus, downweighting the visual information influences when the room's amplitude/velocity increased. However, the young children did not show calibrated response to the 12-year-old children and adults level, being more influenced by the visual stimulus.
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