Article

It is acknowledged that various factors impaired balance control. Among them,
heavy body weight is associated with poor balance control because the location of
the center of mass is further away from the ankle joint. Thus, a larger active
ankle torque is required to counter the greater gravitational torque. Because
balance motor commands have signal-dependent noise whose standard deviation
increases with the absolute value of the neural control signal, it was
hypothesized that faster center of pressure speed observed in obese individuals
would be related to larger balance motor commands variability. A feedback-control
model and parametric system identification technique was used to estimate the
variability in the balance motor commands and neural controller parameters based
on previously published experimental data. Results of the neuromechanical model
confirmed that the balance motor commands of obese individuals are more variable
than that of lean individuals.
CI - Copyright (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS