This study has focused upon the automatic components of posture and movement in a group of ten cerebral palsy children carefully selected to represent a spectrum of abnormalities relatively pure by clinical standards and ten age-matched normals. Each subject stood unsupported upon a movable platform and within a movable visual surround and was then exposed to external perturbations or was asked to pull with one arm upon a movable handle. In comparing the performance of cerebral palsy children in each clinical category with the age-matched normals and with normal adults assessed in previous studies, the process of maintaining stance was subdivided into two component functions: substrates which determined the onset timing, direction and amplitude of postural actions from somatosensory, vestibular, and visual stimuli were termed "sensory organization", and those establishing temporal and spatial patterns of muscular contractions appropriate to produce effective movements were termed "muscle coordination". We found among seven of the ten cerebral palsy children a clear localization of dysfunction within either sensory organization or muscle coordination mechanisms. These results are providing some new insights into the organization of each of these processes as well as suggesting methods for developing a more systematic understanding of the abnormalities of movement control.

Age- and pathology-related changes in the relative contributions of visual and somatosensory inputs to dynamic balance control were evaluated. Young adults (mean age = 25, SD = 4) were compared to older adults (mean age = 68, SD = 5). Electromyographic responses were collected when subjects' balance was perturbed on a movable platform. The amounts of visual information and of somatosensory input at the ankle were manipulated. Muscle response latencies, losses of balance, and muscle sequencing were analyzed. Muscle response latencies did not differ across age groups. Loss of balance data indicated that older adults were less stable under conditions in which peripheral vision was occluded and ankle somatosensation was limited (only foveal vision and vestibular input remaining). Older adults showed more antagonist muscle activation and used muscle sequences not seen in young adults (e.g., hip strategy). These effects were exaggerated among subjects in whom borderline pathology had been diagnosed.