Does an additional load modify the Anticipatory Postural Adjustments in gait initiation?

The objective of the study was to examine whether and how an additional load affects the Anticipatory Postural Adjustments (APA) in gait initiation in able-bodied individuals. Nineteen healthy participants initiated gait at a self-selected speed in two conditions: unloaded and with an overload of 15% body weight. The APA duration, the forward impulse of the APA and the duration of gait initiation increased significantly with the overload, while the other variables did not change.

Pelvis morphology, trunk posture and standing imbalance and their relations to the Cobb angle in moderate and severe untreated AIS.

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is the most common form of scoliosis and usually affects young girls. Studies mostly describe the differences between scoliotic and non-scoliotic girls and focus primarily on a single set of parameters derived from spinal and pelvis morphology, posture or standing imbalance. No study addressed all these three biomechanical aspects simultaneously in pre-braced AIS girls of different scoliosis severity but with similar curve type and their interaction with scoliosis progression.

Target size modifies anticipatory postural adjustments and subsequent elementary arm pointing.

We herein studied whether arm-pointing movements from an upright posture (i.e. Belenkii's paradigm) toward various targets demanding a low degree of precision could influence associated anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) and subsequent arm movements.