Effects of head extension on undisturbed upright stance control in humans

The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate whether and how the head extended posture, commonly encountered in many routine activities, affects undisturbed upright stance control mechanisms in humans. Sixteen young healthy adults stood feet together, with their eyes closed and were asked to sway as little as possible in two Neutral and Extended head conditions. Centre of pressure (CP) displacements, recorded using a force platform, were used to compute the motions of the vertical projection of the centre of gravity (CGv) and those of the difference CP − CGv. A time-domain analysis shows increased mean velocity and surface covered by the trajectory of both elementary motions in the Extended head condition. A frequency analysis also reveals increased root mean squares on the CP − CGv motions, suggesting increased muscular activity in the Extended head condition. Furthermore, similar changes occur on CGv motions. Finally, modelling these trajectories as a fractional Brownian motion process demonstrates increased spatial transition point co-ordinates at which the corrective process is initiated and a more deterministic control mechanism in this corrective process involving CGv motions in the Extended head position. Together, the present findings suggest that head extension position yields a reorganisation of the control mechanisms for maintaining undisturbed upright stance.