Relationship between Recgnition of Body's Position and Postural Control

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to reveal the relationship between "recognition of body position" and "the ability to maintain balance in the standing posture". Subjecrs: The subjects were 32 healthy adults. Methods: The subjects were instructed to raise one of their lower extremities and to estimate the following distances in the sagittal plane: greater trochanter to patella, patella to lateral malleolus, and lateral malleolus to greater trochanter. Next, the researcher measured actual distances and calculated the inaccuracy. In this study, inaccuracy in recognition of body position was defined as the sum of the inaccuracies in the length of each part. The duration for which the subjects were able to maintain their one-legged posture with their eyes-closed was measured. In addition, 20 subjects among 32 subjects were assessed by stabilometry (ANIMA Inc., model Gravicorder G6100). Performance of stabilometory used LNG. Pearson's theory was used in this study. [Results] The inaccuracy was correlated with eyes-closed one-leg standing time (r= -0.58, p<0.01) and with LNG execution (r=0.65, p<0.01). Distance between the lateral malleolus and the greater trochanter was correlated with eyes-closed one-leg standig time (r= -0.56, p<0.01) and with LNG execution (r=0.53, p<0.05). Conclusion: These results suggest that recognition of body position is related to postural control.