Key points• Electrical vestibular stimulation delivered at the mastoid processes evokes a reflex response in the appendicular muscles only when they are actively involved in keeping the unsupported head and body balanced.• We show that the vestibular-evoked muscle response was present during a task that simulated the control of standing where sensory feedback was congruent with the motor-generated expectation to balance the body, and absent when sensory feedback did not match.• The present results indicate that the task dependency of the vestibular-evoked muscle response relies on congruent sensory and motor signals, and that this is organised in the absence of a conscious perception of postural control.• These findings help us understand how our brain combines sensory and motor signals to provide an internal representation of standing balance that can be used to assess whether a perturbation poses a postural threat.Abstract We investigate whether the muscle response evoked by an electrically induced vestibular perturbation during standing is related to congruent sensory and motor signals. A robotic platform that simulated the mechanics of a standing person was used to manipulate the relationship between the action of the calf muscles and the movement of the body. Subjects braced on top of the platform with the ankles sway referenced to its motion were required to balance its simulated body-like load by modulating ankle plantar-flexor torque. Here, afferent signals of body motion were congruent with the motor command to the calf muscles to balance the body. Stochastic vestibular stimulation (±4 mA, 0-25 Hz) applied during this task evoked a biphasic response in both soleus muscles that was similar to the response observed during standing for all subjects. When the body was rotated through the same motion experienced during the balancing task, a small muscle response was observed in only the right soleus and in only half of the subjects. However, the timing and shape of this response did not resemble the vestibular-evoked response obtained during standing. When the balancing task was interspersed with periods of computer-controlled platform rotations that emulated the balancing motion so that subjects thought that they were constantly balancing the platform, coherence between the input vestibular stimulus and soleus electromyogram activity decreased significantly (P < 0.05) during the period when plantar-flexor activity did not affect the motion of the body. in coherence occurred at 175 ms after the transition to computer-controlled motion, which subjects did not detect until after 2247 ms (Confidence Interval 1801, 2693), and then only half of the time. Our results indicate that the response to an electrically induced vestibular perturbation is organised in the absence of conscious perception when sensory feedback is congruent with the underlying motor behaviour.
Previous studies have shown that human body sway during standing approximates the mechanics of an inverted pendulum pivoted at the ankle joints. In this study, a robotic balance system incorporating a Stewart platform base was developed to provide a new technique to investigate the neural mechanisms involved in standing balance. The robotic system, programmed with the mechanics of an inverted pendulum, controlled the motion of the body in response to a change in applied ankle torque. The ability of the robotic system to replicate the load properties of standing was validated by comparing the load stiffness generated when subjects balanced their own body to the robot's mechanical load programmed with a low (concentrated-mass model) or high (distributed-mass model) inertia. The results show that static load stiffness was not significantly (p > 0.05) different for standing and the robotic system. Dynamic load stiffness for the robotic system increased with the frequency of sway, as predicted by the mechanics of an inverted pendulum, with the higher inertia being accurately matched to the load properties of the human body. This robotic balance system accurately replicated the physical model of standing and represents a useful tool to simulate the dynamics of a standing person.
Two factors commonly differentiate proposed balance control models for quiet human standing: 1) intermittent muscle activation and 2) prediction that overcomes sensorimotor time delays. In this experiment we assessed the viability and performance of intermittent activation and prediction in a balance control loop that included the neuromuscular dynamics of human calf muscles. Muscles were driven by functional electrical stimulation (FES). The performance of the different controllers was compared based on sway patterns and mechanical effort required to balance a human body load on a robotic balance simulator. All evaluated controllers balanced subjects with and without a neural block applied to their common peroneal and tibial nerves, showing that the models can produce stable balance in the absence of natural activation. Intermittent activation required less stimulation energy than continuous control but predisposed the system to increased sway. Relative to intermittent control, continuous control reproduced the sway size of natural standing better. Prediction was not necessary for stable balance control but did improve stability when control was intermittent, suggesting a possible benefit of a predictor for intermittent activation. Further application of intermittent activation and predictive control models may drive prolonged, stable FES-controlled standing that improves quality of life for people with balance impairments.
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