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Modulation of intrinsic and reflexive contributions to low-back stabilization due to vision, task instruction, and perturbation bandwidth

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Abstract

The goal of this study is to assess how reflexes and intrinsic properties contribute to low-back stabilization and modulate with conditions. Upper body sway was evoked by anterior–posterior platform translations, while subjects were seated with a restrained pelvis and free upper body. Kinematic analysis of trunk translations and rotations illustrated that a fixed rotation point between the vertebrae L4 and L5 adequately captures lumbar bending up to 5 Hz. To investigate the motor control modulation, the conditions varied in vision (eyes open or closed), task instruction (Balance naturally or Resist perturbations by minimizing low-back motions), and perturbation bandwidth (from 0.2 up to 1, 3 or 10 Hz). Frequency response functions and physiological modeling parameters showed substantial modulation between all conditions. The eyes-open condition led to trunk-in-space behavior with additional long-latency visual feedback and decreased proprioceptive feedback. The task instruction to resist led to trunk-on-pelvis stabilization behavior, which was achieved by higher co-contraction levels and increased reflexive velocity feedback. Perturbations below the low-back natural frequency (~1 Hz) led to trunk-on-pelvis stabilization behavior, mainly attributed to increased intrinsic damping. This indicates that bandwidth effects should not be ignored and that experiments with high-bandwidth perturbations do not fully represent the intrinsic and reflexive behavior during most (low-bandwidth) daily life activities. The neck stabilized the head orientation effectively (head rotation amplitudes 2 % of trunk), but did not effectively stabilize the head in space (global head translations exceeded trunk translations by 20 %). This indicates that low-back motor control is involved in head-in-space stabilization and could explain the low-back motor control modulations due to vision.

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Abbreviations

LBP:

Low-back pain

FRF:

Frequency response functions

RMS:

Root mean square

γ 2(f):

Coherence

VAF:

Variance accounted for

SEM:

Standard error of the mean

BT:

Task instruction to balance naturally

B1:

Perturbation signal with bandwidth of 0.2–1 Hz

B3:

Perturbation signal with bandwidth of 0.2–3 Hz

B10:

Perturbation signal with bandwidth of 0.2–10 Hz

EC:

Eyes-closed conditions

EO:

Eyes-open conditions

RT:

Task instruction to resist the perturbation by minimizing flexion/extension excursions

P(t):

Perturbation signal

X GT(t):

Global torso translations

X RT(t):

Relative torso translations

θ T(t):

Torso rotations

X GH(t):

Global head translations

X RH(t):

Relative head translations

θ H(t):

Head rotations

E(t):

EMG signal

X(f):

FRF of translations

θ(f):

FRF of rotations

E(f):

FRF of EMG

θ mdl(t):

Estimated model rotations

E mdl(t):

Estimated model EMG

m :

Mass (model)

h :

Pendulum height (model)

b :

Intrinsic damping (model)

k :

Intrinsic stiffness (model)

k v :

Reflexive velocity feedback gain (model)

k p :

Reflexive position feedback gain (model)

τ ref :

Reflexive time delay (model)

f act :

Muscle activation cutoff frequency (model)

d act :

Muscle activation damping factor (model)

e scale :

EMG scaling parameter (model)

k vis :

Visual position feedback gain (model)

τ vis :

Visual time delay (model)

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Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the Dutch Technology Foundation STW, which is part of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), and which is partly funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. See www.neurosipe.nl—Project 10732: QDISC.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. BioMechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD, Delft, The Netherlands

    P. van Drunen, Y. Koumans, F. C. T. van der Helm & R. Happee

  2. Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, MOVE Research Institute Amsterdam, VU University Amsterdam, van der Boechorststraat 9, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    J. H. van Dieën

Authors
  1. P. van Drunen
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  2. Y. Koumans
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  3. F. C. T. van der Helm
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  4. J. H. van Dieën
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  5. R. Happee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to P. van Drunen.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 2 and Figs. 9, 10 and 11.

Fig. 9
figure 9

Subject-averaged root mean square (RMS) of the EMG during all conditions. The total RMS (light) includes co-contraction and reflexive contribution, while the reflexive EMG is described by the RMS of the EMG signal with only the perturbed frequencies (dark)

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Fig. 10
figure 10

FRFs of the head kinematics and EMG during the 10-Hz perturbations and the eyes-closed condition. The head kinematics are described by the global translations in space (X GH), the translations relative to the pelvis (X RH) and rotations in space (θ H). The gain (amplitude difference), phase (time shift) and coherence (correlation) illustrate the transformation of the input signal into the output signal. The different colors represent the natural balance (blue) and the resist (red) task. The triangles are given as reference to the slope of the gains indicating stiffness (+2), damping (+1) and mass (0) in the relative translations and rotations and position feedback (0), velocity feedback (+1) and acceleration, and/or force feedback (+2) in the EMG. This is Fig. 4 but for head kinematics

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Fig. 11
figure 11

Kinematics and EMG modulation due to task instruction (balance and resist), bandwidth (B1, B3 and B10), and vision (eyes closed (solid) and open (striped)). Gains and phases were averaged over the low frequencies (<1 Hz). Values are the mean and standard deviations over subjects. A lower X GH-gain and a larger phase lag for X RH and θ H describes modulation toward head-in-space stabilization. Modulation toward head-on-pelvis is illustrated by a X GH closer to 1 (gain) and 0° (phase) and smaller gains for X RH and θ H. This is Fig. 5 but for head kinematics

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van Drunen, P., Koumans, Y., van der Helm, F.C.T. et al. Modulation of intrinsic and reflexive contributions to low-back stabilization due to vision, task instruction, and perturbation bandwidth. Exp Brain Res 233, 735–749 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-4151-2

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