Postural control and contingent negative variation during transient floor translation while standing with the ankle fixed.

Background: Adaptation changes in postural muscle activity and anticipatory attention were investigated with the ankle joint fixed to change postural control strategies during transient floor translation.

Methods: For 15 healthy young adults, 40 transient floor translations (S2) in the anterior direction were applied 2 s after an auditory warning signal (S1), under conditions with or without fixation of the ankle. Activity of the frontal postural muscles (tibialis anterior (TA), rectus femoris (RF), rectus abdominis) and contingent negative variation (CNV, brain potential) were analyzed for 20 trials each of the early and latter halves under each fixation condition.