COORDINATION BETWEEN EQUILIBRIUM AND HEAD-TRUNK ORIENTATION DURING LEG MOVEMENT - A NEW STRATEGY BUILT UP BY TRAINING

1. During unilateral leg movements performed while standing, it is necessary to displace the center of gravity toward the other leg to maintain equilibrium. In addition, the orientation of particular segments, such as the head and trunk, which are used as reference values for organizing the motor act, needs to be preserved. The aim of the present study was to investigate the coordination between movement, equilibrium, and local posture. 2. Experiments were carried out on standing subjects who were instructed to raise one leg laterally to an angle of 45-degrees in response to a light. Two sources of light placed in front of the subject indicated the side on which the movement was to be performed. Three main aspects of the posturokinetic sequence were investigated in two populations, naive subjects and dancers: 1) The body weight transfer toward the supporting leg was found to have two components: first, a "ballistic" one, initiated by a thrust exerted by the moving leg; and second, an "adjustment" component during which the displacement of the center of gravity (CG) reaches a final position (steady state). An early burst in the gastrocnemius medialis of the moving leg often precedes the onset of the center of pressure change. Two differences between naive subjects and dancers were observed: first, the new CG position was almost reached in one step very near to the end of the ballistic component and required only a short adjustment in dancers, whereas in naive subjects it was reached in two steps, including a much longer adjustment component. Second, the dancers were able to minimize the CG displacement toward the supporting side; this might be because they form a better internal representation of the biomechanical limits of stability because of their long training. 2) The onset of the lateral displacement of the malleolus marker of the moving leg always occurred when the body weight had almost completed its transfer to above the support foot. This shows that the positioning of the CG in a new position compatible with equilibrium maintenance was a prerequisite for the leg movement to be performed. The relative timing of events during the posturokinetic sequence was fairly fixed in the dancers, whereas it varied from one trial to another in the naive subjects. 3) The coordination between movement, equilibrium, and head-trunk orientation involves two control strategies. An "inclination" strategy was used by the naive subjects; this consisted of an external rotation of the supporting leg around the anteroposterior ankle joint axis. A counter-rotation at the neck level ensured the stability of the interorbital line in the horizontal plane. A "translation" strategy was used by the dancers; the external rotation of the supporting leg around the ankle joint was associated with a feedforward counter-rotation of the trunk around the coxofemoral joint which maintained the verticality of the whole head-trunk axis. Because the naive subjects were unable to perform the counter-rotation of the trunk in a feedforward manner, this new coordination must have resulted in the dancers from long training and indicates that a new motor program was elaborated by these subjects. The number of degrees of freedom in this coordinated control of equilibrium and head-trunk orientation was significantly lower.