2007/05/30 by Nicolas Vuillerme, Nicolas Pinsault, Matthieu Boisgontier +4
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Neuroscience · Physics and Astronomy · #Motor Control and Adaptation #Muscle activation and electromyography studies #Tactile and Sensory Interactions #physics.med-ph #q-bio.NC
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2007.03.076
published as Neuroscience Letters 431 (2007) 173 - 177
openalex publication_date 2007/05/30 · arxiv created 2007/06/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate whether the sensory weighting of a plantar pressure-based, tongue-placed tactile biofeedback for controlling posture could be subject to inter-individual variability. To achieve this goal, 60 young healthy adults were asked to stand as immobile as possible with their eyes closed in two conditions of No-biofeedback and Biofeedback. Centre of foot pressure (CoP) displacements were recorded using a force platform. Overall, results showed reduced CoP displacements in the Biofeedback relative to the No-biofeedback condition, evidencing the ability of the central nervous system to efficiently integrate an artificial plantar-based, tongue-placed tactile biofeedback for controlling posture during quiet standing. Results further showed a significant positive correlation between the CoP displacements measured in the No-biofeedback condition and the decrease in the CoP displacements induced by the use of the biofeedback. In other words, the degree of postural stabilization appeared to depend on each subject's balance control capabilities, the biofeedback yielding a greater stabilizing effect in subjects exhibiting the largest CoP displacements when standing in the No-biofeedback condition. On the whole, by evidencing a significant inter-individual variability in sensory weighting of an additional tactile information related to foot sole pressure distribution for controlling posture, the present findings underscore the need and the necessity to address the issue of inter-individual variability in the field of neuroscience.