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Updated: Jul 12, 2025
Experimental Methods to Study Human Postural Control
Published on: September 11, 2019
Multisensory and biomechanical influences on postural control in children
Theodore C K Cheung1, Mark A Schmuckler1
1University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada.
Insights
Children
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Biomechanics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Postural control in children relies on integrating sensory and biomechanical data.
- Understanding how children develop balance is crucial for identifying potential developmental delays.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the interplay of visual, haptic (somatosensory), and biomechanical (sensorimotor) inputs on children's balance.
- To examine developmental differences in multisensory integration for postural control.
- To analyze the relationship between anthropometric factors and balance across childhood.
Main Methods:
- Manipulated visual input (present/absent), haptic input (stable/unstable support), and stance width.
- Measured center of pressure velocity and stability gain.
- Analyzed anthropometric parameters (height, leg length, weight) in relation to stability.
Main Results:
- Older children (6-11 years) demonstrated superior multisensory integration for balance compared to younger children (3-5.9 years).
- Younger children's balance improved with larger body size, while older children showed no significant relationship.
- This pattern represents a developmental shift towards adult-like balance control.
Conclusions:
- Multisensory integration plays a key role in developing postural control in children.
- The relationship between body size and balance transitions from positive in younger children to non-significant in older children.
- This study elucidates a critical developmental trajectory in sensorimotor control and balance acquisition.
Abstract:
Children's ability to maintain balance requires effective integration of multisensory and biomechanical information. The current project examined the interaction between such sensory inputs, manipulating visual input (presence vs. absence), haptic (somatosensory) input (presence vs. absence of contact with a stable or unstable finger support surface), and biomechanical (sensorimotor) input (varying stance widths). Analyses of mean velocity of the center of pressure and the percentage stability gain highlighted the role of varying multisensory inputs in postural control. Developmentally, older children (6-11 years) showed a multisensory integration advantage compared with their younger counterparts (3-5.9 years), with the impact of varying sensory inputs more closely akin to that seen in adults. Subsequent analyses of the impact of anthropometric individual difference parameters (e.g., height, leg length, weight, areas of base of support) revealed a shifting pattern across development. For younger children, these parameters were positively related to postural stability across experimental conditions (i.e., increasing body size was related to increasing postural control). This pattern transitioned for older children, who showed a nonsignificant relation between body size and balance. Interestingly, because adults show a negative relation between anthropometric factors and stability (i.e., increasing body size is related to decreasing postural control), this shift for the older children can be seen as a developmental transition from child-like to adult-like balance control.
