Quantitative analysis of voluntary movement and anticipatory postural adjustments: a functional approach

Abstract

Daily living activities and tasks like standing forward reaching present complex Anticipatory Postural Adjustments (APAs), and an objective, repeatable, subject- and task-dependent procedure to detect Voluntary Movements (VM) and APAs onsets is still missing. This paper proposes a new approach to the VMs study, based on a functional mechanical interpretation of the movement performing, which allows defining kinematic and dynamic APAs. A protocol for the identification of VMs and APAs onsets in the reaching movement is presented. Acquired data on 9 healthy young subjects enable a preliminary validation of this method suitability as support for an objective quantification of APAs.

Keywords:

• Anticipatory postural adjustments
• voluntary movements
• activities of daily living (ADL)
• functional mechanical model
• kinematics and dynamics
• standing forward reaching

Acknowledgment

The authors warmly thank Manuela Ghidoni and Marta Novali for data analysis and acquisition. This study was supported by Italian Ministry of University and Research (RC 2018: “Applicabilità fisioterapica della valutazione degli Aggiustamenti Posturali Anticipatori nel reaching”).

Disclosure statement

Authors declare that there are no known conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca.