ABSTRACT
Postural response/reaction is the muscle activations in response to both internal and external disturbances that maintain the alignment of the mass centers of the body and postural analysis refers to the assessment of the position of center of mass (COM) and/or center of pressure (COP) relative to the base of support (BOS). The major quantifiable factors of the disturbances include tactile, auditive and visual effect. A change in any one of these factors is reflected in the form of neuro-muscular response that returns the position of COM to its original position with respect to the BOS. Factors such as pathology or old age may compromise this response resulting in fall and injury. The currently available clinical balance assessment tests, however, are highly subjective and depend on the clinicians’ experience. Quantification of these tests will highly augment the decision-making process of clinicians. This study uses COP as a biomarker and establishes a reference range for COP employing open-source sample data with gender-specific interpretation. In addition, the deviation caused by pathology is also studied. The effect of somatosensory perception is found to be greater in maintaining the static stability. The human quiet standing was found to be more unstable in the Anterior-Posterior (A/P) direction than the Medio-lateral (M/L) direction as ankle planter-flexors balances the body in the A/P direction and hip abductors/adductors in the M/L direction. In addition, the identifiable difference of pathological COP from the reference is established based on amplitude and absolute value. This difference can be utilized through AI models to predict the onset of balance-based disorders.
