Balance control impairment in obese individuals is caused by larger balance motor commands variability

It is acknowledged that various factors impaired balance control. Among them, heavy body weight is associated with poor balance control because the location of the center of mass is further away from the ankle joint. Thus, a larger active ankle torque is required to counter the greater gravitational torque. Because balance motor commands have signal-dependent noise whose standard deviation increases with the absolute value of the neural control signal, it was hypothesized that faster center of pressure speed observed in obese individuals would be related to larger balance motor commands variability. A feedback-control model and parametric system identification technique was used to estimate the variability in the balance motor commands and neural controller parameters based on previously published experimental data. Results of the neuromechanical model confirmed that the balance motor commands of obese individuals are more variable than that of lean individuals.