Biomedical subjects

Benoît G Bardy

Publications and source records attributed to Benoît G Bardy.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Motion sickness, body movement, and claustrophobia during passive restraint.

Standing participants were passively restrained and exposed to oscillating visual motion. Thirty-nine percent of participants reported motion sickness. Despite passive restraint, participants exhibited displacements of the center of pressure, and prior to the onset of motion sickness the evolution of these displacements differed between participants who later became sick and those who did not. Claustrophobia occurred during restraint, but only among participants who became motion sick. The results are consistent with the postural instability theory of motion sickness. We discuss the possible relation between claustrophobia symptoms, postural movements and motion sickness incidence.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Motion sickness preceded by unstable displacements of the center of pressure.

We exposed standing participants to optic flow in a moving room. Motion sickness was induced by motion that simulated the amplitude and frequency of standing sway. We identified instabilities in displacements of the center of pressure among participants who became sick; these instabilities occurred before the onset of subjective motion sickness symptoms. Postural differences between Sick and Well participants were observed before exposure to the nauseogenic stimulus. During exposure to the nauseogenic stimulus, sway increased for participants who became sick but also for those who did not. However, at every point during exposure sway was greater for participants who became motion sick. The results reveal that motion sickness is preceded by instabilities in displacements of the center of pressure.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

PubMed2006

Changes in phase space during learning an unstable balance.

Six participants learned to maintain an unstable balance on a stabilometer, during 6 consecutive days of practice (total of 90 trials). Lateral and angular variations of body segments and body center of mass were analysed, and their evolution over the learning period was compared to the changes in dimensional variables capturing the structure of the movement itself (embedding and correlation dimension, largest Lyapunov exponent). Results indicated that (i) learning occurred, (ii) was accompanied by persistence in the dimension of the movement, and (iii) by a reduction in chaotic (or stochastic) components. Compared to other results in the learning literature, these results suggest that dimensional changes over learning are task-specific.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2006

[Perception and regulation of human movement: Plea for a physical biology].

This article analyzes the circular causality existing between movements and their perceptual consequences. The interaction between the observer and the environment gives rise to multiple energy changes (e.g., optical, inertial), which contain a lot of information relevant for its control. Based on a formal analysis of the energy flows and the physical constraints organizing human motor acts, exemplary control laws are described governing the online guidance of our daily gestures. The efficiency of the sensori-motor mechanisms observed in the regulation of walking, reaching, and bouncing is emphasized.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Voluntary and involuntary postural responses to imposed optic flow.

We demonstrated that postural responses to imposed optic flow are to some extent voluntary. In a moving room, participants either stood normally or were instructed to resist any influence of visible motion on their stance. When participants attempted to resist, coupling of body sway with motion of the room was significantly greater than when the eyes were closed, but was significantly reduced relative to coupling in the normal stance condition. The results indicate that the use of imposed optic flow for postural control is not entirely automatic or involuntary. This conclusion motivates a search for non-perceptual factors that may influence the degree to which body sway is coupled to imposed optic flow.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Dynamics of learning new postural patterns: influence on preexisting spontaneous behaviors.

In stance, rotations around the hips and ankles typically exhibit a relative phase close to 20 degrees or 180 degrees . In 2 experiments, the authors studied the reciprocal influence of those coordination tendencies with learning an ankle-hip relative phase of 135 degrees . Before, during, and after learning a new mode of coordination, they assessed participants' (N = 24 in each experiment) spontaneous postural patterns with a tracking task in which no specific coordination was required. Learning the 135 degrees phase relation led to persistent modifications of the spontaneous in-phase and antiphase modes. Contrary to the theoretical predictions of the dynamical approach, the initial stability of the preexisting patterns did not influence the difficulty of producing the new mode or the improvement in performance during learning. Initial stability did, however, influence the rate and type of modification of spontaneous patterns. The authors discuss the results in relation to conclusions drawn from bimanual studies.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Differential exploitation of the inertia tensor in multi-joint arm reaching.

The identification of the kinaesthetic information used for directing 3D multi-joint arm movements toward a target remains an open question. Several psychophysical studies have suggested that the ability to perceive and control the spatial orientation of our limbs depends on the exploitation of the eigenvectors (e (3)) of the inertia tensor (I ( ij )), which correspond to the arm rotational inertial axes. The present experiment aimed at investigating whether e (3) was used as a collective variable to direct the masses toward the target and hence to control the spatial accuracy of the final hand position. Natural, unconstrained, three-dimensional multi-joint reaching movements were submitted to alterations of forearm mass distribution. Given the existence of several "sensorimotor strategies" for the control of arm movements, the participants were a priori contrasted and ranged in groups according to their reliance on either visual or kinaesthetic information. The results indicated (1) the dependency of the arm's directional control on I ( ij ) parameters, (2) a non-linear relationship between the performance predicted by the inertia tensor and the observed performance, depending on the deviation amplitude and (3) the presence of a large inter-individual variability suggesting the existence of different strategies, including proprioceptive compensation mechanisms. This study validates in unconstrained multi-joint arm movements the exploitation of the inertia tensor by the central nervous system, thus simplifying the coordination of the segments' masses during reaching. The results also provide evidence for the existence of motor alternatives in exploiting proprioceptive information that may depend on spatial referencing modes.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Exploring coordination dynamics of the postural system with real-time visual feedback.

Differential performance over a wide range of possible postural coordination modes was investigated using 16 ankle-hip relative phase patterns from 0 degrees to 337.5 degrees. Participants were instructed to produce each coordination mode with and without real time visual feedback. Feedback consisted of a Lissajous figure indicating the discrepancy between actual and requested ankle-hip relative phase. The results showed: (1) the presence of a unique attractor around the anti-phase pattern (relative phase approximately 180 degrees); (2) performance was similar with and without visual feedback; (3) the absence of an attractor for the in-phase pattern (relative phase approximately 20 degrees). The third result is not consistent with previous research in which both in-phase and anti-phase patterns emerged when they were not imposed [B.G. Bardy, L. Martin, T.A. Stoffregen, R.J. Bootsma, Postural coordination modes considered as emergent phenomena, J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 25 (1999) 1284-1301; B.G. Bardy, O. Oullier, R.J. Bootsma, T.A. Stoffregen, Dynamics of human postural transitions, J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 28 (1999) 499-514]. This finding indicates the strong dependency to task variation and instructions of postural pattern formation.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Leg stiffness and expertise in men jumping.

PURPOSE: The aim of the present study is to investigate: a) the leg spring behavior in the one-leg vertical jump, b) the contribution of impulse parameters to this behavior, and c) the effect of jumping expertise on leg stiffness. METHODS: Four categories of experts (handball, basketball, volleyball players, and Fosbury athletes), as well as novice subjects performed a run-and-jump test to touch a ball with the head. Five experimental conditions were tested from 55 to 95% of the maximum jump height. Kinematic and kinetic data were collected using six cameras and a force plate. RESULTS: The mechanical behavior of the musculoskeleton component of the human body can be modeled as a simple mass-spring system, from which leg stiffness values can be extracted to better understand energy transfer during running or jumping. The results indicate that leg stiffness (mean value of 11.5 kN.m) decreased with jumping height. Leg shortening at takeoff also increased with jumping height, whereas contact time decreased (-18%). No difference was found between experts and novices for leg stiffness. However, a principal components analysis (PCA) indicated the contribution of two main factors to the performance. The first factor emerged out of vertical force, stiffness, and duration of impulse. The second factor included leg shortening and jumping height. CONCLUSION: Differences between experts and novices were observed in terms of the contribution of leg stiffness to jump height, and more importantly, clear differences existed between experts in jumping parameters. The analysis performed on the sport categories indeed revealed different jumping profiles, characterized by specific, sport-related impulse parameters.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Optical flow and viewpoint change modulate the perception and memorization of complex motion.

Participants observed a point-light character (PLC) performing a gymnastic movement. They either memorized the final PLC orientation from the initial viewpoint, to match it to a test posture (memory task), or judged whether the biological motion appeared continuous (perceptual task), despite a viewpoint change. The observer could be either static or virtually in motion (pan or track) while looking at the movement from the initial viewpoint. The presence of a spatial layout during virtual self-motion induced a global optical flow specifying the translational component of the PLC movement, rendering the event more predictable for the participants. A representational momentum effect was observed in the memory task, suggesting that when a visual stimulation, such as a PLC motion, is abruptly stopped, its dynamics survive. In contrast, structural and transformational invariants specifying the PLC motion were sufficient to solve the perceptual task accurately. Finally, both the remembering of the final posture and the perception of continuity degraded with an increase in viewpoint change due to tilt/slant posture orientation matching, indicating that orientation processes interfered with event perception.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Task-specific stabilization of postural coordination during stance on a beam.

Surfaces shorter in extent than the feet elicit multi-joint coordination that differs from what is elicited by stance on extensive surfaces. This well-known effect arises from the mechanics of the actor-environment interaction. Multi-joint control of stance is also known to be influenced by non-mechanical aspects of a situation, including participants' task or intention. Intentional constraints do not originate in mechanics, and for this reason one might suppose that constraints imposed by mechanics would dominate constraints imposed by intentions, when the two were in conflict. We evaluated this hypothesis by varying participants' supra-postural task during stance on a short surface. While standing on a 10-cm wide beam, participants were exposed to optic flow generated by fore-aft oscillations of a moving room. Participants faced a target attached to the front wall of the moving room and were asked either to look at the target (with no instruction to move) or intentionally to track it with their head (i.e., to keep the target-head distance constant). Within trials, we varied the frequency of room (and target) motion, from 0.15 to 0.75 Hz, in steps of 0.05 Hz. In both conditions, ankle and hip rotations exhibited anti-phase coordination, but behavior was not identical across conditions. Coupling between motion of the room and the head was stronger for the tracking task than for the looking task, and the stability of ankle-hip coordination was greater during tracking than during looking. These results indicate that the influence of support surface mechanics did not eliminate the influence of the supra-postural task. Environment-based and task-based constraints interacted in determining the coordination of hips and ankles during stance.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

PubMed2002

Postural coordination in looking and tracking tasks.

Participants stood in a moving room and looked at a target that was attached to the front wall of the room. They were instructed either to look at the target or to track it, that is, to move so as to maintain a constant distance between the target and their head. Previous research (e.g. Bardy, Oullier, Bootsma, & Stoffregen, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2002) has documented stable modes of coordination of the hip and ankle joints that emerge during the tracking task. In the present study our main goal was to determine the effects of task variation (tracking versus looking) on these postural coordination modes. Within trials, we varied the frequency of room motion between 0.10 and 0.75 Hz. The results revealed that in both the tracking and looking tasks, posture was characterized by the emergence of in-phase and anti-phase modes, although the modes were more prominent in the tracking task. For both tasks the coordination mode adopted depended on the frequency of motion of the moving room. Coupling between motion of the room and motion of the head was stronger in the tracking task than in the looking task. Overall, the dynamics of hip-ankle coordination were qualitatively similar during the looking and tracking tasks. This similarity has consequences for the development of a general theory of the visual regulation of stance.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Visually induced motion sickness predicted by postural instability.

We investigated whether postural instability can predict motion sickness and studied relations among instability, motion sickness, and vection. Nine men and 4 women (mean age = 19.85 years) were exposed, while standing, to an optical simulation of body sway. Head motion was recorded using a magnetic tracking system. Postural instabilities were observed prior to the onset of motion sickness. Vection was reported by most participants, including all who became ill. A discriminant analysis revealed that parameters of postural motion accurately predicted motion sickness. The results confirm that postural instability precedes motion sickness and suggest that measures of postural motion may serve as reliable predictors of motion sickness. Potential applications of this research include the development of on-line diagnostic tools that will allow for the prevention of motion sickness in operational and training settings.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Dynamics of human postural transitions.

In the present study, the authors examined transitions between postural coordination modes involved in human stance. The analysis was motivated by dynamical theories of pattern formation, in which coordination modes and transitions between modes are emergent, self-organized properties of the dynamics of animal-environment systems. In 2 experiments, standing participants tracked a moving target with the head. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that changes in body coordination follow typical nonequilibrium phase transitions, exhibiting multistability, bifurcation, critical fluctuations, hysteresis, and critical slowing down. The findings suggest that posture may be organized in terms of dynamical principles and favor the existence of general and common principles governing pattern formation and flexibility in complex systems.

Adult↗