It is becoming increasingly evident that people with chronic, recurrent low back pain (LBP) exhibit changes in cerebrocortical activity that associate with altered postural coordination, suggesting a need for a better understanding of how the experience of LBP alters postural coordination and cerebrocortical activity. To characterize changes in postural coordination and pre-movement cerebrocortical activity related to the experience of acutely induced LBP, 14 healthy participants with no history of LBP performed sit-to-stand movements in 3 sequential conditions: (1) without experimentally induced LBP; NoPain1, (2) with movement-associated LBP induced by electrocutaneous stimulation; Pain, and (3) again without induced LBP; NoPain2. The Pain condition elicited altered muscle activation and redistributed forces under the seat and feet prior to movement, decreased peak vertical force exerted under the feet during weight transfer, longer movement times, as well as decreased and earlier peak hip extension. Stepwise regression models demonstrated that electroencephalographic amplitudes of contingent negative variation during the Pain condition significantly correlated with the participants’ change in sit-to-stand measures between the NoPain1 and Pain conditions, as well as with the subsequent difference in sit-to-stand measures between the NoPain1 and NoPain2 conditions. The results, therefore, identify the contingent negative variation as a correlate for the extent of an individual’s LBP-related movement modifications and to the subsequent change in movement patterns from before to after the experience of acutely induced LBP, thereby providing a direction for future studies aimed to understand the neural mechanisms underlying the development of altered movement patterns with LBP.

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The effects of low-intensity muscle training with heel-raises on dynamic balance associated with bilateral arm flexion were investigated in postmenopausal elderly women. Twenty-six elderly women were evenly grouped into training and control groups. Training group subjects performed 100 heel raises per day for 2 months. The training was aimed at hypertrophy of the soleus muscle, which has a relatively high proportion (ca. 90%) of slow-twitch muscle fibers and is one of the main postural muscles. Dynamic balance was measured while arm flexion was performed in response to a visual stimulus (simple-reaction condition) or at the subjects' own pace (own-timing condition). The following parameters were compared before and after the training period: plantar flexion strength, thicknesses of the gastrocnemius and soleus (by ultrasound), reaction time of the anterior deltoid in the simple-reaction condition, activation onset timing of postural muscles with respect to the deltoid, movement angles of ankle and hip joints, and postural fluctuation. In the training group only, the following training-related effects were demonstrated: (a) increase in plantar flexor strength and thickness of the soleus, (b) shortening of the deltoid reaction time, (c) earlier activation of the erector spinae in the simple-reaction condition and the soleus in the own-timing condition, and (d) increase in ankle movement in the own-timing condition and a decrease in postural fluctuation. This heel-raise training in the elderly can increase soleus thickness within the triceps surae and improve postural control modality and stability that are effectively contributed to by the leg muscle. This training consists of a low-intensity exercise that requires neither special machines nor a specific environment and can be performed safely for all old-aged groups.

BackgroundA flexed neck posture leads to non-specific activation of the brain. Sensory evoked cerebral potentials and focal brain blood flow have been used to evaluate the activation of the sensory cortex. We investigated the effects of a flexed neck posture on the cerebral potentials evoked by visual, auditory and somatosensory stimuli and focal brain blood flow in the related sensory cortices.MethodsTwelve healthy young adults received right visual hemi-field, binaural auditory and left median nerve stimuli while sitting with the neck in a resting and flexed (20° flexion) position. Sensory evoked potentials were recorded from the right occipital region, Cz in accordance with the international 10–20 system, and 2 cm posterior from C4, during visual, auditory and somatosensory stimulations. The oxidative-hemoglobin concentration was measured in the respective sensory cortex using near-infrared spectroscopy.ResultsLatencies of the late component of all sensory evoked potentials significantly shortened, and the amplitude of auditory evoked potentials increased when the neck was in a flexed position. Oxidative-hemoglobin concentrations in the left and right visual cortices were higher during visual stimulation in the flexed neck position. The left visual cortex is responsible for receiving the visual information. In addition, oxidative-hemoglobin concentrations in the bilateral auditory cortex during auditory stimulation, and in the right somatosensory cortex during somatosensory stimulation, were higher in the flexed neck position.ConclusionsVisual, auditory and somatosensory pathways were activated by neck flexion. The sensory cortices were selectively activated, reflecting the modalities in sensory projection to the cerebral cortex and inter-hemispheric connections.

BackgroundIn this study, a cast brace was used to immobilize the knee, hip, and trunk, and relations between the event-related brain potential (ERP) and postural muscle activity were investigated while standing on an oscillating table.MethodsTwelve healthy young adults maintained a standing posture for 1 min per trial while oscillating in the anteroposterior direction at 0.5 Hz with a 2.5-cm amplitude. Trials were performed without and with the cast brace (no-fixation and fixation condition, respectively) until the subject had adapted to the floor oscillation. The ERP from the Cz electrode, postural muscle activity, and joint movement range were analyzed for the first and last two trials (before and after adaptation, respectively).ResultsMovement range of the hip and knee was lower in the fixation condition than in the no-fixation condition, and postural control was achieved by pivoting at the ankle. Peak muscle activity was largest in the gastrocnemius (GcM) in both conditions. GcM activity significantly increased after fixation and then decreased with adaptation. The time of peak erector spinae (ES) activity in the fixation condition was significantly earlier than in the no-fixation condition and was not significantly different from the time of the anterior reversal and peak of triceps surae activity. The negative ERP peaked approximately 80 ms after the anterior reversal. Significant correlations between the time of the peak negative ERP and the peak GcM, soleus, and ES activity were observed only after the adaptation, and were greater in the fixation condition (r = 0.83, 0.84, and 0.83, respectively) than in the no-fixation condition (r = 0.62, 0.73, and 0.51, respectively).ConclusionAll joints of the leg and trunk except for the ankle were rigidly fixed by the cast brace, and the phase differences between body segments were very small in the fixation condition. High correlations between the time of the peak negative ERP and the peak GcM, soleus, and ES activity after adaptation in the fixation condition suggest that attention would be more focused on anticipatory processing of muscle sensory information from the triceps surae and/or ES, particularly GcM, which had the greatest activation.