Central and peripheral mechanisms controlling human balance control

我的五年研究计划的短期目标是了解平衡控制和涉及平衡相关感觉信息的检测，整合和感知的潜在神经机制如何受到威胁和相关因素的影响，如焦虑，恐惧和唤醒。这项研究是我长期研究目标的一部分，目的是发现中枢和外周神经系统如何有助于人类的平衡控制。如果你考虑一下当一个人试图在不同的高度走过平衡木时会发生什么，你就很容易理解威胁是如何影响平衡的。当横梁在地面上时，表演通常是成功的，但当横梁升高时，大多数人往往会失去平衡并摔倒。类似的因素可能会导致平衡问题和害怕摔倒的人的福尔斯，也可能影响在威胁或压力条件下工作的人的表现和安全。我们的研究表明，健康个体的威胁增加会直接影响他们控制平衡的方式。然而，威胁影响大脑调整平衡以适应不断变化的感官条件和为平衡紊乱做准备的能力的具体方式目前尚不清楚。同样，对于这种不断变化的感官信息是如何被检测到、整合在一起并在威胁条件下被有意识地感知的，也知之甚少。该计划旨在研究不同来源的威胁如何影响：a）感觉信息如何被整合和重新加权以在安静站立期间保持平衡，B）在预期的姿势障碍之前如何准备保护性姿势响应，c）从肌肉中的受体接收的与平衡相关的感觉信息的灵敏度如何，以及d）平衡相关感觉信息的有意识感知如何改变。该研究计划将提供设计诊断和治疗平衡障碍和福尔斯的新方法所需的重要基础知识，并改善必须在恐惧，焦虑和/或压力相关唤醒条件下生活，工作或执行的个人的培训，性能和安全。

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.