Quantifying Segmental Contributions to Center-of-Mass Motion During Dynamic Continuous Support Surface Perturbations Using Simplified Estimation Models.

This study aimed to quantify the contributions of body segments (ie, trunk, head, upper extremity, and lower extremity) to the control of center-of-mass (COM) movement during continuous, multidirectional, support surface perturbations. Three-dimensional, whole-body kinematics were captured while 10 participants experienced 5 minutes of perturbations. Anteroposterior, mediolateral, and vertical COM position and velocity were calculated using a full-body model and 7 models with reduced numbers of segments, which were compared with the full-body model. With removal of body segments, errors relative to the full-body model increased, while relationship strength decreased. The inclusion of body segments appeared to affect COM measures, particularly COM velocity. Findings suggest that the body segments may provide a means of improving the control of COM motion, primarily its velocity, during continuous, multidirectional perturbations, and constitute a step toward improving our understanding of how the limbs contribute to balance control in moving environments. PMID: 32659743 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Journal of Applied Biomechanics - Category: Sports Medicine Tags: J Appl Biomech Source Type: research