Central and peripheral mechanisms controlling human balance control

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The short term goal of my five year research program is to understand how balance control and the underlying neural mechanisms involved in the detection, integration and perception of balance-relevant sensory information are influenced by threat and associated factors, such as anxiety, fear and arousal. This research is part of my long term research goal to discover how the central and peripheral nervous systems contribute to human balance control. One can easily appreciate how threat can influence balance, if you consider what happens when someone tries to walk across a balance beam at different heights. When the beam is on the ground, performance is usually successful, but when the beam is elevated, most people tend to lose their balance and fall. Similar factors may contribute to balance problems and falls in those with a fear of falling, and may also impact performance and safety of those who work under threatening or stressful conditions. Our research has shown that increased threat in otherwise healthy individuals can directly influence the way they control balance. However, the specific way in which threat influences the brain's ability to adjust balance to changing sensory conditions and prepare for balance disturbances is currently unknown. Likewise, there is little knowledge about how this changing sensory information is detected, integrated together and consciously perceived under threatening conditions. The program is designed to examine how different sources of threat influences: a) how sensory information is integrated and re-weighted to maintain balance during quiet stance, b) how protective postural responses are prepared in advance of an expected postural disturbance, c) how the sensitivity of balance-relevant sensory information received from receptors in the muscle, and skin is modulated and d) how the conscious perception of balance-relevant sensory information is changed. The research program will provide important fundamental knowledge needed to design new approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of balance disorders and falls and to improve training, performance and safety of individuals who must live, work or perform under conditions of fear, anxiety and/or stress-related arousal.