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Contribution of central and peripheral vision to the regulation of stance: developmental aspects
1Laboratoire sport et performance motrice, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France. vincent.nougier@ujf-grenoble.fr
Insights
Children
Area of Science:
- Developmental motor control
- Sensory integration in children
- Postural stability analysis
Background:
- Postural control relies on visual and somatosensory input.
- Understanding sensory contributions to balance in children is crucial for development.
- Age-related changes in sensory processing can impact postural stability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of vision (central, peripheral, complete) and somatosensory feedback on postural control in children aged 6, 8, and 10.
- To examine age-specific differences in how visual and somatosensory information influence postural stability.
- To elucidate the complementary roles of central and peripheral vision in postural regulation.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of postural oscillations in children under four visual conditions (complete, peripheral, central, none) and two support surface conditions (normal, foam).
- Quantification of postural stability based on movement patterns.
- Comparison of results across different age groups (6, 8, 10 years).
Main Results:
- Children demonstrated improved postural stability with vision compared to no vision, regardless of vision type (complete, central, or peripheral).
- Stable surfaces led to better postural control than altered surfaces (foam).
- Age did not significantly affect overall postural stability, but specific visual conditions showed age-dependent effects on stability, particularly for 8-year-olds.
Conclusions:
- Both central and peripheral vision are vital for maintaining postural stability in children.
- Peripheral vision becomes more effective for antero-posterior regulation after age 6.
- The interplay between visual and somatosensory systems is critical for postural development and should be considered within age-specific sensory operating characteristics.
Abstract:
Postural oscillations in 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children were analyzed in four conditions of vision of the environment (complete vision, peripheral vision, central vision and no-vision) and two conditions of ankle somatosensory information (normal and altered support surfaces with a 5-cm-thick foam). Children were more stable with than without vision. This was observed whether children had complete or partial vision (central or peripheral). They were also more stable with the normal than with the altered support surface. Overall, there was no effect of age. Beyond these well-established results, the present experiment showed the complementary role of peripheral and central vision in the regulation of children's posture. For the 6- and 10-year-olds, central and peripheral vision yielded similar postural stability, whereas for the 8-year-olds, central vision yielded greater postural stability than peripheral vision. The analysis of postural oscillations in the medio-lateral and antero-posterior planes showed that, for the three age groups, central vision was as efficient whatever the plane. On the other hand, after age 6, peripheral vision was more efficient for regulating antero-posterior than medio-lateral oscillations. The contribution of the different sensory systems and their interaction for stabilizing posture in children should be specifically interpreted with regard to the operating characteristics of each sensory system at each age.