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Prieto, et. al. Measures of postural steadiness: Differences between healthy young and elderly adults.

Bouisset and Zattara. Biomechanical study of the programming of anticipatory postural adjustments associated with voluntary movement.

Answer the following questions:

1. How would you interpret a Romberg ratio of 1. How would you interpret a Romberg ratio of 1.6.

2. How would you interpret the general finding that the differences between the eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions were greater for the elderly group when compared to the young adult group?

3. If two measures have a high correlation coefficient what it assumed? Why is this assumption important when attempting to evaluate static postural control?

4. Potentially what is the significance of the finding of relatively low correlations between AP and ML components of the COP?

5. What would you argue is the main finding of the Bouisset and Zattara article. What evidence supports your argument?

Demonstration 1

From Bioware print a COP Average as Origin graph from the eyes open and the eyes closed, (500 Hz) condition. Is the 95% Ellipse Area different between the eyes open and eyes closed conditions?

Based on your data, answer the following questions - use your data to support your answers that are in complete sentences.

a) - how does sampling at 500 Hz versus 50 Hz impact the COP pathlength?

2) - how does closing the eyes impact the peak-to-peak AP sway?

3) - is the correlation coefficient between the x and y components of the COP affected by eye closure? If so, how could that be interpreted?

Demonstration 2

From Bioware print a Fz, Fx and Fy graph for each condition.

Based on your data, answer the following questions.

What are the peak forces in the z, x and y direction for each condition?

Which force showed the earliest change from baseline? Based on the Bouisset and Zattara article, was this expected?