Elderly women are reported to have greater risk of falls. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the possible gender differences in the reaction performance of ankle joint muscles, which have dominant role in the control of sagittal plane balance. Twenty-six elderly men and women with comparable mean age participated in this study. Reaction times to the audible beeps were measured in the tibialis anterior muscle and gastrocnemius muscle. Reaction time variables included premotor time, electromechanical delay and total reaction time. Gender difference in each reaction time was investigated by independent t-test. In both muscles, premotor time was longer in men but the electromechanical delay was longer in women (p < 0.05). Resulting total reaction time was longer in men in tibialis anterior muscle (p < 0.01) and it tended to be longer in men also in gastrocnemius muscle (p = 0.25). The results demonstrates that the overall reaction performances of elderly women is better than or comparable to those of elderly men in ankle joint muscles. This suggests that the reaction performance of ankle muscles is hardly the cause of the greater risk of falls in elderly women.

The purpose of this study was to compare premotor time(PMT) and electro-mechanical delay(EMD) between sitting and standing posture. Twenty four healthy young subjects(12 women and 12 men) participated in this study. Subjects were instructed to perform maximal, voluntary, isometric contraction of ankle muscle(tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius muscles) in reaction to auditory stimulus. PMT and EMD, calculated from stimulus, EMG and torque profile were compared between sitting and standing postures. As statistical analysis, paired t-test was performed to assess difference between sitting and standing posture. In both tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius muscles, EMD was found to be significantly longer for standing than sitting. However, PMT in standing posture was longer than that in sitting posture only in gastrocnemius muscles. These result indicate that increased reaction time, particularly, increased EMD of ankle muscles in standing posture may be caused by co-contraction of ankle muscles for postural control in standing posture.