Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 2, 545-552, Copyright © 1982 by Society for Neuroscience
Ontogenetic development of postural control in man: adaptation to altered support and visual conditions during stance
H Forssberg and LM Nashner
Normal young children ranging in age from 1 1/2 to 10 years were assessed
in a number of experimental paradigms testing the ability to adapt quickly
their strategy of control to altered support surface and visual conditions.
The experimental protocols, using a movable platform and visual surround,
and the analytic techniques, using EMGs and measures of reaction forces and
body motions, were identical to those employed in a complementary study in
this issue (Nashner, L. M., F. O. Black, and C. Wall, III (1982) J.
Neurosci. 2: 536-544). The structure of automatic postural adjustments in
young children was, with the exception of greater variability, similar to
that of adult subjects studied previously. However, young children below
the age of 7 1/2 years were unable to suppress systematically the influence
of inputs derived from the support surface or from vision when these
provided inappropriate orientation information due to the motion of these
surfaces. The discussion emphasizes that the automatic postural adjustments
and the context-dependent reweighting of support surface, vestibular, and
visual inputs are organizationally separate processes and that the
hierarchically lower level automatic process matures before the higher
level adaptive processes.
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