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Mobility as the Purpose of Postural Control

Counteracting the destabilizing force of gravity is usually considered to be the main purpose of postural control. However, from the consideration of the mechanical requirements for movement, we argue that posture is adjusted in view of providing impetus for movement. Thus, we show that the posture...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Le Mouel, Charlotte, Brette, Romain
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5529402/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28798679
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2017.00067
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author Le Mouel, Charlotte
Brette, Romain
author_facet Le Mouel, Charlotte
Brette, Romain
author_sort Le Mouel, Charlotte
collection PubMed
description Counteracting the destabilizing force of gravity is usually considered to be the main purpose of postural control. However, from the consideration of the mechanical requirements for movement, we argue that posture is adjusted in view of providing impetus for movement. Thus, we show that the posture that is usually adopted in quiet standing in fact allows torque for potential movement. Moreover, when performing a movement—either voluntarily or in response to an external perturbation—we show that the postural adjustments are organized both spatially and temporally so as to provide the required torque for the movement. Thus, when movement is performed skillfully, the force of gravity is not counteracted but actually used to provide impetus to movement. This ability to move one's weight so as to exploit the torque of gravity seems to be dependent on development and skill learning, and is impaired in aging.
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spelling pubmed-55294022017-08-10 Mobility as the Purpose of Postural Control Le Mouel, Charlotte Brette, Romain Front Comput Neurosci Neuroscience Counteracting the destabilizing force of gravity is usually considered to be the main purpose of postural control. However, from the consideration of the mechanical requirements for movement, we argue that posture is adjusted in view of providing impetus for movement. Thus, we show that the posture that is usually adopted in quiet standing in fact allows torque for potential movement. Moreover, when performing a movement—either voluntarily or in response to an external perturbation—we show that the postural adjustments are organized both spatially and temporally so as to provide the required torque for the movement. Thus, when movement is performed skillfully, the force of gravity is not counteracted but actually used to provide impetus to movement. This ability to move one's weight so as to exploit the torque of gravity seems to be dependent on development and skill learning, and is impaired in aging. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-07-27 /pmc/articles/PMC5529402/ /pubmed/28798679 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2017.00067 Text en Copyright © 2017 Le Mouel and Brette. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Le Mouel, Charlotte
Brette, Romain
Mobility as the Purpose of Postural Control
title Mobility as the Purpose of Postural Control
title_full Mobility as the Purpose of Postural Control
title_fullStr Mobility as the Purpose of Postural Control
title_full_unstemmed Mobility as the Purpose of Postural Control
title_short Mobility as the Purpose of Postural Control
title_sort mobility as the purpose of postural control
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5529402/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28798679
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2017.00067
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