We aimed to evaluate the influence of different types of wheelchair seats on paraplegic individuals' postural control using a maximum anterior reaching test. Balance evaluations during 50, 75, and 90% of each individual's maximum reach in the forward direction using two different cushions on seat (one foam and one gel) and a no-cushion condition…

Patients with chronic low back pain have a worse posture, probably related to poor control of the back muscles and altered perception of the trunk midline. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a perceptive rehabilitation in terms of stability and pain relief in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain. Thirty patients were…

The postural sway patterns of newly standing infants were compared under two conditions: standing while holding a toy and standing while not holding a toy. Infants exhibited a lower magnitude of postural sway and more complex sway patterns when holding the toy. These changes suggest that infants adapt postural sway in a manner that facilitates…

Educational ergonomics focuses on the interaction between educational performance and educational design. By improving the design or pointing out the possible problems, educational ergonomics can be utilized to have positive impacts on the student performance and thus on education process. Laptops and tablet computers are becoming widely used by…

Adults' and 8-year-old children's perception of emotional faces is disrupted when faces are presented in the context of incongruent body postures (e.g., when a sad face is displayed on a fearful body) if the two emotions are highly similar (e.g., sad/fear) but not if they are highly dissimilar (e.g., sad/happy). The current research investigated…

Measurement of balance and postural performance that underpins activities of daily living is important in the rehabilitation of individuals with a lower limb amputation (LLA), and there are a number of methods and strategies available for this purpose. To provide an evidence-based choice of approach, this review aims to critically review the tasks…

Studies have suggested that proper postural control is essential for the development of reaching. However, little research has examined the development of the coordination between posture and manual control throughout childhood. We investigated the coordination between posture and manual control in children (7- and 10-year-olds) and adults during…

The current research investigated the influence of body posture on adults' and children's perception of facial displays of emotion. In each of two experiments, participants categorized facial expressions that were presented on a body posture that was congruent (e.g., a sad face on a body posing sadness) or incongruent (e.g., a sad face on a body…

Postural stability is a fundamental aspect of motor ability that allows individuals to sustain and maintain the desired physical position of one's body. The present study examined postural stability in average-IQ adolescents and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Twenty-six individuals with ASD and 26 age-and-IQ-matched individuals…

This study used an ABCB within-subjects design to examine the relative effects of feedback and prompts on safe sitting posture. Participants were three office workers. The dependent variables were the percentages of time the participants spent in four safe individual body positions and in the safe overall sitting posture. After baseline (A),…

Mobility limitations are common in persons with Intellectual Disabilities (ID). Differences in balance and gait capacities between persons with ID and controls have mainly been demonstrated by instrumented assessments (e.g. posturography and gait analysis), which require sophisticated and expensive equipment such as force plates or a 3D motion…

Difficulty with literacy acquisition is only one of the symptoms of developmental dyslexia. Dyslexic children also show poor motor coordination and postural control. Those problems could be associated with automaticity, i.e., difficulty in performing a task without dispending a fair amount of conscious efforts. If this is the case, dyslexic…

A hierarchical progression in infants' ability to use surface features, such as color, as a basis for object individuation in the first year has been well established (Tremoulet, Leslie, & Hall, 2000; Wilcox, 1999). There is evidence, however, that infants' sensitivity to surface features can be increased through multisensory (i.e.,…

In order to better understand the role of the vestibular system in postural adjustments on unstable surfaces, we analyzed the effects of galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) on the pattern of muscle activity and joint displacements (ankle knee and hip) of eight intellectually normal participants (control group--CG) and eight control group…

The aim of this study was to quantify the role of visual contribution in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) on balance maintenance using a force platform. We enrolled 14 individuals with PWS free from conditions associated with impaired balance, 44 obese (OG) and 20 healthy controls (CG). Postural sway was measured for 60 s while standing…