Vigor of reactive postural responses is set from feedback and feedforward processes

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Neuroscience
• Motor Control

Background:

• Postural control is crucial for maintaining balance.
• Previous models often focus on reactive responses to perturbations.
• The role of response history in postural control is less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose an optimization-based framework for understanding reactive postural responses.
• To investigate how sensory information and response history influence response vigor.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical exploration of an optimization rule for postural control.
• Analysis of afferent sensory information and prior perturbation responses.

Main Results:

• The organism selects reactive response vigor based on an optimization rule.
• This rule prioritizes balance recovery needs indicated by sensory data.
• The rule also incorporates the history of responses to similar perturbations.

Conclusions:

• Postural control involves a sophisticated optimization strategy.
• Both real-time sensory feedback and learned response history are key factors.
• This perspective offers a novel understanding of how the body maintains stability.