Right in Comparison to Left Cerebral Hemisphere Damage by Stroke Induces Poorer Muscular Responses to Stance Perturbation Regardless of Visual Information.

Objective: Fast and scaled muscular activation is required to recover body balance following an external perturbation. An issue open to investigation is the extent to which the cerebral hemisphere lesioned by stroke leads to asymmetric deficits in postural reactive responses. In this experiment, we aimed to compare muscular responses to unanticipated stance perturbations between individuals who suffered unilateral stroke either to the right or to the left cerebral hemisphere.

Young and older adults adapt automatic postural responses equivalently to repetitive perturbations but are unable to use predictive cueing to optimize recovery of balance stability.

Processing of contextual cues has been proposed to modulate the generation of automatic postural responses to unanticipated balance perturbations. In this investigation, we compared young and older individuals in responses to sudden rotations of the support base inducing either planti- or dorsiflexion of the ankles. Assessment was made in conditions resulting from the combination of visual directional cueing of the forthcoming platform rotation, and block versus random sequences of platform rotation directions.

Light touch leads to increased stability in quiet and perturbed balance: Equivalent effects between post-stroke and healthy older individuals.

Cerebral damage provoked by stroke may lead to deficits of quiet balance control and of the recovery of body equilibrium following an unanticipated postural perturbation. In this investigation we aimed to evaluate the effect of light touch (LT) of an earth-fixed surface on balance stability in individuals with post-stroke hemiparesis, taking performance of age-matched healthy participants as reference. Evaluations were made in conditions of full and no visual information.

Right cerebral hemisphere specialization for quiet and perturbed body balance control: Evidence from unilateral stroke.

Our aim in this investigation was to assess the relative importance of each cerebral hemisphere in quiet and perturbed balance, based on uni-hemispheric lesions by stroke. We tested the hypothesis of right cerebral hemisphere specialization for balance control. Groups of damage either to the right (RHD, n=9) or the left (LHD, n=7) cerebral hemisphere were compared across tasks requiring quiet balance or body balance recovery following a mechanical perturbation, comparing them to age-matched nondisabled individuals (controls, n=24).

Light touch modulates balance recovery following perturbation: from fast response to stance restabilization.

Light fingertip touch of a static bar generates extra somatosensory information used by the postural control system to reduce body sway. While the effect of light touch has been studied in quiet stance, less attention has been given to its potential benefit for reactive postural responses. In the present study, we tested the effect of light fingertip touch of a stable surface on recovery of postural stability from a mechanical perturbation.

Precueing time but not direction of postural perturbation induces early muscular activation: comparison between young and elderly individuals.

In this study, we evaluated the effect of precueing characteristics of an impending perturbation to upright stance on reactive responses of distal leg muscles. Young and older individuals were compared in a task of recovering stable upright stance following rotation of the supporting platform to induce anterior or posterior body sway. Directions of the supporting platform rotation were randomized across trials.

Aging increases flexibility of postural reactive responses based on constraints imposed by a manual task.

This study compared the effect of stability constraints imposed by a manual task on the adaptation of postural responses between 16 healthy elderly (mean age = 71.56 years, SD = 7.38) and 16 healthy young (mean age = 22.

Muscle strength and ankle mobility for the gait parameters in diabetic neuropathies.

Aims: To evaluate the spatio-temporal variables of gait and the isometric muscle strength component of the ankle in patients with peripheral diabetic neuropathy. Also, verify the relationship between these variables and gait parameters.

Methods: This study involved 25 diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) participants (62.