Circular components in center of pressure signals

Static posturography provides an objective assessment of postural control by characterizing the body sway during upright standing. The center of pressure (COP) signal is recorded by a force platform, and it is analyzed by means of many different models and techniques. Most of the parameters calculated according to these different approaches are affected by relevant intra- and intersubject variability or do not have a clear physiological interpretation. Traditional approaches decompose the COP signal into anteroposterior and mediolateral time series, corresponding to ankle plantar/dorsiflexion and hip adduction/abduction, respectively. In this study we hypothesized that COP signals show inherent rotational characteristics. To verify our hypothesis we applied the rotary spectra analysis to the two-dimensional COP signal to decompose it into clockwise and counterclockwise rotational components. We demonstrated the presence of rotational components in the COP signal of healthy subjects, providing a reference data set of the spectral characteristics of these components.