[The influence of the leg load and the support mobility under leg on the anticipatory postural adjustment]

Anticipatory postural adjustment is an essential part of equilibrium maintainance during standing in human. So changes in stance condition could affect both control of equilibrium and anticipatory adjustment. Anticipatory changes in the stabilogram of each leg were studied in standing subject during the early stage of quick right arm lifting while legs were on two separated supports. The center of pressure (CP) movement was analyzed in three variants of experiment: both legs on immovable support, with only right leg on the movable support and with only left leg on the moveable support. In each standing condition subject stood with symmetrical load on two legs or with the load voluntary transferred to one leg. The anticipatory CP shift depended on the mobility of the support under the leg and on loading of the leg. While standing on unmovable supports with symmetrical load on the legs before lifting of the right arm CP of right leg shifted backward and CP of left leg--forward. While standing with one leg on movable support the anticipatory CP shift of this leg was small and did not depend on the load on the leg. However the shift of CP of the leg that was placed on the unmovable support depended on the load in the same way as in the case when both legs were on unmovable supports. Results suggested that since on movable support the support and proprioceptive afferent flow from distal part of the leg that was did not supply unambiguous information about body position, the role of distal joints in posture control is reduced.