SummaryThe relationships among functional independence, perceived family functioning and duration of disability were studied in 41 non-institutionalised post-traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) families. Correlational analyses revealed that SCI subjects with greater self initiation of activities, increased social involvement and higher overall level of independence perceived their family environment as affectively responsive, open in communication and clear in delineation of role responsibilities. The 'sig nificant other's' (A 'significant other' is designated by the SCI subject as 'the one most involved with you'. The 'significant other' had to be living with or within 25 miles of the SCI subject and in contact at least 3 times a week.) view of the family was unrelated to SCI function. Conversely, for the significant other but not the SCI subject, greater duration of disability predicted more concern for the family's ability to problem solve, delineate roles and maintain standards of behaviour control. Of the functional areas measured, only participation in outside activities increased significantly over time. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of considering the long-term and separate rehabilitation needs of the individual with a SCI and his or her family.

Orientation of posture relative to the environment depends on the contributions from the somatosensory, vestibular, and visual systems mixed in varying proportions to produce a sensorimotor set. Here, we probed the sensorimotor set composition using a postural adaptation task in which healthy adults stood on an inclined surface for 3 min. Upon returning to a horizontal surface, participants displayed a range of postural orientations – from an aftereffect that consisted of a large forward postural lean to an upright stance with little or no aftereffect. It has been hypothesized that the post-incline postural change depends on each individual’s sensorimotor set: whether the set was dominated by the somatosensory or vestibular system: Somatosensory dominance would cause the lean aftereffect whereas vestibular dominance should steer stance posture toward upright orientation. We investigated the individuals who displayed somatosensory dominance by manipulating their attention to spatial orientation. We introduced a distraction condition in which subjects concurrently performed a difficult arithmetic subtraction task. This manipulation altered the time course of their post-incline aftereffect. When not distracted, participants returned to upright stance within the 3-min period. However, they continued leaning forward when distracted. These results suggest that the mechanism of sensorimotor set adaptation to inclined stance comprises at least two components. The first component reflects the dominant contribution from the somatosensory system. Since the postural lean was observed among these subjects even when they were not distracted, it suggests that the aftereffect is difficult to overcome. The second component includes a covert attentional component which manifests as the dissipation of the aftereffect and the return of posture to upright orientation.