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Nonlinear analysis of posturographic data

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Abstract

The aim of this work is to determine whether postural sway can be well described by nonlinear deterministic modelling. Since the results of nonlinear analysis depend on experimental data processing, emphasis was given to the assessment of a proper methodology to process posturographic data. Centre of Pressure (CoP) anterior-posterior (AP) displacements (stabilogram) were obtained by static posturography tests performed on control subjects. A nonlinear determinism test was applied to investigate the nature of data. A nonlinear filtering method allowed us to estimate properly the parameters of the nonlinear model without altering signal dynamics. The largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE) was estimated to quantify the chaotic behaviour of postural sway. LLE values were found to be positive although close to zero. This suggests that postural sway derives from a process exhibiting weakly chaotic dynamics.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. P.Pace and G. Ghetti, P.T., for the use of the Posture and Movement Analysis Laboratory at I.N.R.C.A. Hospital, Ancona; prof. M.G. Signorini, Milan Polytechnic, for her useful suggestions; the authors of the following software packages: TISEAN (TIme SEries ANalysis) Software package and online documentation, by R. Hegger, H. Kantz, and T. Schreiber, available at: http://www.mpipksdresden.mpg.de∼tisean/Tisean_2.1; NDT (Nonlinear Dynamics Toolbox, Georgia Institute of Technology Applied Chaos) Software package and online documentation, by J. Reiss, available at: http://www.physics.gatech.edu/chaos/research/NDT.html; VRA (Visual Recurrence Analysis) Software package and online documentation, by E. Kononov, available at http://home.netcom.com/∼eugenek/download.html.

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  1. Department of Electromagnetism and Bioengineering, Universita’ Politecnica Delle Marche, Ancona, Italy

    Luigi Ladislao & Sandro Fioretti

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  1. Luigi Ladislao
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  2. Sandro Fioretti
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Correspondence to Sandro Fioretti.

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Ladislao, L., Fioretti, S. Nonlinear analysis of posturographic data. Med Bio Eng Comput 45, 679–688 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-007-0213-y

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