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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 11, 2026

Experimental Methods to Study Human Postural Control

Experimental Methods to Study Human Postural Control

Published on: September 11, 2019

Human standing: does the control strategy preprogram a rigid knee?

Irene Di Giulio¹, Vasilios Baltzopoulos, Constantinos N Maganaris

¹Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom. i.digiulio@ucl.ac.uk

Journal of Applied Physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985)

|April 27, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Human standing involves flexible joint control. Some individuals maintain stiff leg configurations, while others use a more adaptable, energy-absorbing strategy. Identifying these strategies may aid in diagnosing and predicting movement and fall risks.

Keywords:

control strategy in standing knee control posture

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Experimental Methods to Study Human Postural Control

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Area of Science:

Biomechanics
Human Motor Control
Neuroscience

Background:

Human upright stance relies on complex multisegmental postural control.
The degree of freedom problem in human posture remains debated: is it minimized or flexibly adjusted?

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether the human postural system minimizes degrees of freedom or allows flexible configuration adjustment during standing.
To identify distinct leg control strategies in response to mechanical perturbations.

Main Methods:

Applied gentle, unpredictable, sagittal mechanical perturbations to the knee of 24 healthy participants standing symmetrically.
Analyzed joint rotations (ankle, knee, hip) in both legs to assess configuration-conserving (stiff) versus energy-absorbing (viscous) responses.

Main Results:

Two distinct strategies were observed: 1) limited knee flexion with high ankle stiffness (22 participants), and 2) substantial knee flexion with low ankle stiffness and hip internal rotation (2 participants).
The latter group exhibited a viscous relationship between perturbation force and joint rotations, indicating energy absorption.
No correlation was found between knee flexion response magnitude and standing sway.

Conclusions:

Normal standing exhibits significant interindividual variability in leg control strategies.
A stiff, configuration-conserving strategy is common, while a bilateral, low-stiffness, energy-absorbing strategy is less common.
Individual coordination strategies have potential diagnostic and prognostic value for movement disorders and fall risk.