Student: Shaileen Parikh
Project Mentors: Dr. Narayanan Krishnamurthi – CONHI
Dr. James Abbas- SBHSE
Dr. Claire Honeycutt- SBHSE
YouTube Link: View the video link below before joining the zoom meeting
Zoom Link: https://asu.zoom.us/j/93984194288
Zoom meeting time: 9 to 11am
Abstract
Postural control is referred to as the body’s ability to maintain an upright position with respect to its environment and to sustain it in equilibrium. Human postural control is based on a complex integration of inputs from various sensory and proprioceptive systems. The loss of postural control usually contributes to difficulty in gait and significantly increased risk of falling; it is also associated with several conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease. The common clinical tools used to assess postural control lack sensitivity and reliability under different conditions and amongst different groups of people. In this project, we have developed a methodology to investigate posture control by analyzing center-of-pressure (CoP) data during quiet standing. This methodology focuses on identifying novel postural sway measures such as the amount of sway (in CoP) exhibited in a direction before it was corrected to maintain equilibrium and the time taken to make the correction. These measures may be helpful to investigate postural control mechanisms in different age groups (healthy young and healthy elderly), different conditions (eyes open and eyes closed), and in people with neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease. This approach is applied to the CoP data sets obtained in our previous studies from people in different age groups and people with PD to investigate its ability to characterize postural control.