| Grant number: | 15/02404-7 |
| Support Opportunities: | Regular Research Grants |
| Start date: | September 01, 2015 |
| End date: | August 31, 2017 |
| Field of knowledge: | Health Sciences - Physical Education |
| Principal Investigator: | Renato de Moraes |
| Grantee: | Renato de Moraes |
| Host Institution: | Escola de Educação Física e Esporte de Ribeirão Preto (EEFERP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil |
| City of the host institution: | Ribeirão Preto |
Abstract
Fallers older adults have greater postural instability than their non-fallers pairs. The use of additional haptic information reduces body sway in young adults and non-fallers older adults. There are two paradigms for this purpose: light touch and anchor system. The light touch consists of slightly touching a rigid surface with the tip of the index finger. The anchor system consists in holding in each hand a flexible cable with a light mass (125 g) attached at the end that is in contact with the ground. Despite the reduction in body sway with the use of these paradigms, it is unclear whether they equally reduce body sway. This is important because it helps identifying whether there are advantages in using one or other of these paradigms. In addition, fallers older adults may have more difficulty using the additional haptic information provided by these paradigms, since they have higher demand for attention to make their motor actions and it is known the light touch competes for attention. Also, considering that the paradigms of light touch and anchor have different points of contact (palm for the anchor and fingertip to the light touch) and different number of points of contact (two hands for the anchor system and one hand for light touch) is important to analyze these factors to make the comparison between them the most effective. Thus, this project aims to analyze the effect of adding haptic information to the control of posture, as well as compare the effect of both light touch and anchor system paradigms, compare the effect of different points of contact and compare the effect of the number of contact points to the control of posture in young adults, fallers and non-fallers older adults. Participants will be asked to stand upright with feet together, performing conditions combining the use of light touch/anchor system, points of contact (finger and palm) and the number of contact points (two hands and one hand). Both the anchor and the touch bar will be instrumented with a triaxial force transducer. Variables related to the displacement of the center of pressure and body center of mass will be computed. It is expected that the results of this study will help identifying more clearly the differences between the light touch and the anchor system paradigms with respect to the control of posture in young adults, fallers and non-fallers older adults. These results have important implications, as will set the advantages of the use of one or another paradigm, as well as the relationship between information deriving from different points of contact (i.e., hand and finger) and number of contact points (i.e., two hands and one hand) to the control of posture. (AU)
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