Postural stabilization during bilateral and unilateral vibration of ankle muscles in the sagittal and frontal planes

Abstract

BackgroundThe purpose was to investigate the postural consequences of proprioceptive perturbation of the Triceps Surae and Peroneus Longus muscles. These muscles are known to control posture respectively in the sagittal and frontal planes during standing.MethodsStandard parameters and the time course of center of pressure (CoP) displacements were recorded in 21 young adults, instructed to maintain their balance during tendon vibration. Following 4 s of baseline recording, three types of vibration (80 Hz) were applied for 20 s each on the Peroneus or Achilles tendons, either unilaterally or bilaterally (with eyes shut). The recording continued for a further 24 s after the end of the vibration during the re-stabilization phase. To evaluate the time course of the CoP displacement, each phase of the trial was divided into periods of 4 seconds. Differences between the type of tendon vibration, phases and periods were analyzed using ANOVA.ResultsDuring all tendon vibrations, the speed of the CoP increased and a posterior displacement occurred. These changes were greater during Achilles than during Peroneus vibration for each type of vibration and also during bilateral compared with unilateral vibration. All maximal posterior positions occurred at a similar instant (between 12.7 and 14 s of vibration). Only unilateral Achilles vibration led to a significant medio-lateral displacement compared to the initial state.ConclusionsThe effect of the proprioceptive perturbation seems to be influenced by the position of the vibrated muscle according to the planes of the musculoskeletal postural organization. The amplitude of the destabilization may be related to the importance of the muscle for postural control. The medial CoP displacement which occurred during unilateral Achilles vibration is not a general reaction to a single-limb perturbation. Proprioceptive input from the non-perturbed leg was not sufficient for the antero-posterior displacement to be avoided; however, it helped to gain stability over time. The non-perturbed limb clearly plays an important role in the restoration of the postural referential, both during and immediately following the end of the vibration. The results demonstrated that at least 16 s of vibration are necessary to induce most postural effects in young adults.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1743-0003-11-130) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Correlation between Mechanical Properties of the Ankle Muscles and Postural Sway during the Menstrual Cycle

“…Combined with the tibialis muscles, the peroneus muscles support and stabilize the ankle joint (De Ridder et al 2014. The peroneus longus (PL) is well known to provide lateral stability, and the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle is increasingly activated when the lateral displacement of the tibia is being controlled (Page et al 2010;De Ridder et al 2014;Duclos et al 2014;Pozzi et al 2015). Calf muscles also support anterior/posterior stability of the ankle joint, especially when postural stability is challenged (Vieira et al 2013).…”

“…The ankle plays a major role in posture and locomotion (Baumhauer et al 1995;Vieira et al 2013;Cattagni et al 2014;Duclos et al 2014;Pozzi et al 2015). Small changes in the center of gravity are corrected by the position of the knee, hip and ankle to maintain the center of gravity in the basal plane (Page et al 2010).…”

The role of proprioception in the sagittal setting of anticipatory postural adjustments during gait initiation

“…Since we observed a shorter APA phase and a faster A-P CoP velocity when vibration was applied only immediately before gait initiation onset, we suggest that this condition may benefit participants. A CoP position excessive recovery after vibration was already demonstrated by other studies [10,14]: e.g. when vibration on the gastrocnemius was interrupted, an excessive forward CoP recovery in relation to its initial position was observed [10].…”

“…However, our results (Figure 1), show that independently of the moment vibration was applied, it induced an improvement in gait initiation performance. This finding indicates that the benefits of vibration on the gait initiation performance are not exclusively explained by post-vibratory effects [10,13,14,28]. Tard et al [29] demonstrated that stimulus-driven attention modifies the gait initiation.…”

“…Two major CoP behaviours are observed when vibration is applied during upright standing: (i) a CoP displacement towards (lower limb), or opposite (trunk muscles) to the vibrated muscles (i.e. : a forward CoP displacement is observed when tibialis anterior and upper trapezius are stimulated) [9][10][11][12]); (ii) a CoP over recovery in relation to its initial position after vibration cessation [10,13,14]: i.e. after the cessation of vibration on the soleous the CoP moves excessively backwards compared to its initial position [10].…”