Symposium: Multisensory mechanisms of posture control
Multiple Paper Presentation

Stuart Smith
University College Dublin

     Abstract ID Number: 121
     Last modified: May 31, 2007
     Presentation date: 07/07/2007 2:00 PM in Quad General Lecture Theatre
     (View Schedule)

Symposium Overview
Postural instability and falls occur when normal spatial orienting and postural mechanisms are challenged and fail. Perception of spatial orientation primarily involves the transduction and integration by the central nervous system (CNS) of sensory information from visual, vestibular, proprioceptive, somatosensory and auditory systems. Optimal integration of sensory signals and body movements required to maintain one’s desired orientation in 3-dimensional space, even for static body positions, is a necessarily complex task. When moving through one’s environment, during which the majority of falls occur, successful postural control further relies on the dynamic comparison of sensorimotor information with “higher order” control signals concerned with predictive route planning, expectations about movement and memory of one’s path. The penetrability of perceptual processes by factors such as attention, memory and decision-making suggests that successful control of postural stability is likely to involve cognitive processing. Despite a great deal of recent research effort directed towards addressing the multivariate predictors of falls in older individuals, there has yet to be a systematic study of this area from a coherent theoretical perspective of multisensory integration and spatial orientation.

The motivation for this symposium is to present the work done by a number of Internationally recognised research teams who are interested in the multisensory mechanisms of posture control.

Papers in this Symposium:

• Brian Day
  MRC Human Movement Group, Sobell Department for Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, Institute of Neurology, UCL, London
  Michel Guerraz
  Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition CNRS UMR 5105 Université de Savoie, France.
  Feedforward versus feedback modulation of human vestibular-evoked balance responses by visual self-motion information
• Stephen Lord
  Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute
  Annie Butler
  Richard Fitzpatrick
  PROPRIOCEPTION, STRENGTH AND STANDING
• Richard Fitzpatrick
  Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute
  Daina Sturnieks
  Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute
  Rebecca St George
  Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute
  Daniel Wardman
  Vestibular-visual interactions in balance and orientation
• Rebecca St George
  Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute
  Richard Fitzpatrick
  Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute
  Perceptions of orientation after vestibular, visual and proprioceptive conditioning
• Ian Curthoys
  Psychology, University of Sydney
  Hamish MacDougall
  Psychology, University of Sydney
  Dena Attalla
  Psychology, University of Sydney
  Fabienne MBongo
  LNRS, Universite Paris
  Pierre-Paul Vidal
  LNRS, Universite Paris
  Catherine de Waele
  LNRS, Universite Paris
  Human head and body stability after unilateral vestibular loss