Postural control during quiet standing following cervical muscular fatigue: effects of changes in sensory inputs

TL;DR

This study investigates how cervical muscular fatigue affects postural control during quiet standing, highlighting the increased reliance on visual and somatosensory inputs to maintain balance under fatigue conditions.

Contribution

It demonstrates the impact of cervical muscular fatigue on postural stability and how sensory inputs are reweighted to compensate for fatigue-related deficits.

Findings

Cervical fatigue increases sway when visual input is absent.

Degraded somatosensation amplifies balance disturbances due to fatigue.

Visual information helps suppress destabilizing effects of cervical fatigue.

Abstract

The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the effects of cervical muscular fatigue on postural control during quiet standing under different conditions of reliability and/or availability of somatosensory inputs from the plantar soles and the ankles and visual information. To this aim, 14 young healthy adults were asked to sway as little as possible in three sensory conditions (No vision, No vision-Foam support and Vision) executed in two conditions of No fatigue and Fatigue of the scapula elevator muscles. Centre of foot pressure (CoP) displacements were recorded using a force platform. Results showed that (1) the cervical muscular fatigue yielded increased CoP displacements in the absence of vision, (2) this effect was more accentuated when somatosensation was degraded by standing on a foam surface and (3) the availability of vision allowed the individuals to suppress this destabilising effect. On the whole, these findings not only stress the importance of intact cervical neuromuscular function on postural control during quiet standing, but also suggest a reweigthing of sensory cues in balance control following cervical muscular fatigue by increasing the reliance on the somatosensory inputs from the plantar soles and the ankles and visual information.