Research topics

All motor skills require an ultimate integration of postural control and movement coordination.  Sensory information is essential to adequately respond in order to prevent damage to the musculoskeletal system or loss of balance.  Individuals who experience a loss of sensory information (e.g. by visual or hearing disabilities) face a major limitation that can largely affect motor performance.  It is assumed that balance problems lie at the basis of poor motor performance in these populations.
 

The ability of postural control is evaluated based on clinical tests of balance and postural sway measurements.  In the literature, however, weak relationships were found between static balance measurements and performance during e.g. locomotion.  From a clinical perspective, the question arises whether it is not relevant to quantify postural control in a dynamic situation, such as during locomotion.
 

A variety of different measurements characterizing balance or postural control during a dynamic task such as walking can be found.  The validity and reliability of these balance measurements is currently uncertain.  Before one of these measurements can be routinely used to evaluate postural control in patients with sensory deficits, it is important to determine the validity and reliability in a population with no neurological or musculoskeletal disorders.
 

Our different research projects aim at understanding how a mature gait pattern takes shape.

In children with normal development independent walking is achieved between the ages of twelve to fourteen months.  At this time a toddler is confronted with a constantly growing and changing neuro-musculo-skeletal system.  On top of that he has no previous experiences of walking to rely on.  Naturally he will not be as skilled as adults in combining the double task of generating propulsion and maintaining balance.  Therefore the toddler’s gait pattern will be quite different from mature gait that is observed in adults.  Childhood is a period of growth and development during which immature gait will gradually evolve towards a mature and stable pattern.

We aim to answer research questions such as:

• What are the biomechanical determinants of the normal development of bipedal gait in humans?
• How can variation in a child's body build explain the variation we observe in gait patterns between children?
• How do locomotor strategies occuring prior to the development of walking affect the quality of the gait pattern?

Cervical sensorimotor control (cSMC) is the system providing functional stability of the cervical spine.  This system comprises the afferent information from the cervical structures, visual and vestibular system, together with the efferent information from the central nervous system and the central integration and processing.

CSMC can be measured using several parameters.  The position sense is the best known parameter, but as sensorimotor control also includes the feedback and feed forward mechanisms during the entire movement trajectory, the content validity of this test can be questioned.  To quantify altered sensorimotor functions during movements, several kinematic parameters are used. In relation to cervical spine disorders, reduced range of motion (ROM), altered activation patterns of cervical muscles, reduced maximal velocity and movement smoothness are registered during cervical voluntary movements.

Several types of 3D measuring devices can be used to capture kinematic parameters during movement.  In M²OCEAN, a passive optical motion capture system, VICON®, is used.  This system is immune to interference from equipment or metal objects and the free line of sight needed, is guaranteed, because 8 cameras are used.