Postural control of a musculoskeletal model against multidirectional support surface translations

PLoS One. 2019 Mar 6;14(3):e0212613. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212613. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

The human body is a complex system driven by hundreds of muscles, and its control mechanisms are not sufficiently understood. To understand the mechanisms of human postural control, neural controller models have been proposed by different research groups, including our feed-forward and feedback control model. However, these models have been evaluated under forward and backward perturbations, at most. Because a human body experiences perturbations from many different directions in daily life, neural controller models should be evaluated in response to multidirectional perturbations, including in the forward/backward, lateral, and diagonal directions. The objective of this study was to investigate the validity of an NC model with FF and FB control under multidirectional perturbations. We developed a musculoskeletal model with 70 muscles and 15 degrees of freedom of joints, positioned it in a standing posture by using the neural controller model, and translated its support surface in multiple directions as perturbations. We successfully determined the parameters of the neural controller model required to maintain the stance of the musculoskeletal model for each perturbation direction. The trends in muscle response magnitudes and the magnitude of passive ankle stiffness were consistent with the results of experimental studies. We conclude that the neural controller model can adapt to multidirectional perturbations by generating suitable muscle activations. We anticipate that the neural controller model could be applied to the study of the control mechanisms of patients with torso tilt and diagnosis of the change in control mechanisms from patients' behaviors.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Models, Biological*
  • Postural Balance / physiology*
  • Posture / physiology*

Associated data

  • figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.7707128
  • figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.7707095
  • figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.7706933
  • figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.7706903

Grants and funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas "Understanding brain plasticity on body representations to promote their adaptive functions" (Grant Number JP26120006). JSPS KAKENHI is by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/index.html). There was no additional external funding received for this study.