Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 1, 2026
Computerized Dynamic Posturography for Postural Control Assessment in Patients with Intermittent Claudication
Published on: December 11, 2013
Sensory information utilization and time delays characterize motor developmental pathology in infant sitting postural
Joan E Deffeyes1, Regina T Harbourne, Wayne A Stuberg
1Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
Insights
Infants with typical development rely more on velocity for balance control than those with developmental delays. This study used neural networks to analyze sensorimotor development in sitting posture.
Area of Science:
- Sensorimotor development
- Infant biomechanics
- Computational neuroscience
Background:
- Sitting is a key early developmental milestone.
- Assessing sitting posture offers insights into infant sensorimotor development.
- Postural sway analysis can reveal control strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate sensorimotor control differences in infants based on developmental status.
- To analyze the reliance on different sensory inputs (position, velocity, acceleration) for postural control.
- To model infant sitting posture using neural networks.
Main Methods:
- Collected sitting postural sway data using a force plate.
- Trained neural network controllers on the collected data.
- Probed trained networks for sensitivity to position, velocity, and acceleration at various time delays.
Main Results:
- Typically developing infants showed increased reliance on velocity information for anterior-posterior control.
- Typically developing infants utilized more diverse information types for medial-lateral control.
- Infants with developmental delays (often due to cerebral palsy) did not exhibit this reliance on velocity and showed less use of short-latency control.
Conclusions:
- Infant sensorimotor development influences postural control strategies.
- Neural network analysis can differentiate control mechanisms between typically developing and delayed infants.
- Delayed development, particularly cerebral palsy, is associated with altered reliance on sensory feedback for maintaining sitting posture.
Abstract:
Sitting is one of the first developmental milestones that an infant achieves. Thus measurements of sitting posture present an opportunity to assess sensorimotor development at a young age. Sitting postural sway data were collected using a force plate, and the data were used to train a neural network controller of a model of sitting posture. The trained networks were then probed for sensitivity to position, velocity, and acceleration information at various time delays. Infants with typical development developed a higher reliance on velocity information in control in the anterior-posterior axis, and used more types of information in control in the medial-lateral axis. Infants with delayed development, where the developmental delay was due to cerebral palsy for most of the infants in the study, did not develop this reliance on velocity information, and had less reliance on short latency control mechanisms compared with infants with typical development.
