Abstract
Purpose
Spontaneous postural sway during quiet standing has been considered a simple output error of postural control. However, as postural sway and inherent body orientation evoke compensatory activity of the plantar flexors, they might contribute to blood circulation under gravitational stress via the muscle pump. Hence, the present study employed an external support device to attenuate the plantar flexor activity in supported standing (SS), to experimentally identify its physiological impact on blood circulation.
Methods
Eight healthy young subjects performed two 5-min quiet standing trials (i.e., normal standing (NS) and SS), and the beat-to-beat interval (RRI) and blood pressure (BP) were compared between trials. We confirmed that postural sway and corresponding plantar flexor activity, quantified by the anteroposterior displacement of the foot center of pressure and lower back position with respect to the wall, and by the amplitude of electromyography and mechanomyography, respectively, were attenuated in SS, while mean body orientation angle and relative position of the BP sensor were comparable to NS.
Results
The 5-min averages of diastolic BP and mean arterial pressure during SS were significantly higher than during NS, while RRI and systolic BP did not change. These could be interpreted as an increase in peripheral vascular resistance; meanwhile, in NS, this effect was replaced by the muscle pump of the plantar flexors.
Conclusion
The muscle contractions related to spontaneous postural sway and body orientation produce substantial physiological impact on blood circulation during quiet standing.
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Availability of data
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- BP:
-
Beat-by-beat blood pressure
- CoM:
-
Center of mass
- CoMy:
-
Anteroposterior coordinate of center of mass
- CoP:
-
Foot center of pressure
- CoPy:
-
Anteroposterior coordinate of foot center of pressure
- DBP:
-
Beat-by-beat diastolic blood pressure
- ∆θ body :
-
Rotation angle of body orientation around ankle joint
- EA:
-
Right elbow joint angle
- ECG:
-
Electrocardiography
- EMG:
-
Electromyography
- HF:
-
High-frequency range
- LF:
-
Low-frequency range
- LG:
-
Lateral head of gastrocnemius muscle
- MAP:
-
Beat-by-beat mean arterial pressure
- MG:
-
Medial head of gastrocnemius muscle
- MMG:
-
Mechanomyography
- MPF:
-
Mean power frequency
- MVC:
-
Maximal voluntary contraction
- NS:
-
Normal quiet standing
- PSD:
-
Power spectrum density
- REST:
-
Rest sitting in a chair
- RMS:
-
Root mean square
- RRI:
-
R–R interval
- SBP:
-
Beat-by-beat systolic blood pressure
- SOL:
-
Soleus muscle
- SS:
-
Supported standing
- TA:
-
Tibialis anterior muscle
- VD:
-
Vertical distance of blood pressure sensor from acromion
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP17K13113. The authors express their sincere appreciation to all participants for their contribution to this study.
Funding
This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant number JP17K13113).
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RN, NS, and TK conceived and designed research. RN, CT, MY, YS, and TK conducted experiments and analyzed data. RN, NS, and TK wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.
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Communicated by I. Mark Olfert.
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Naruse, R., Taki, C., Yaegashi, M. et al. Attenuated spontaneous postural sway enhances diastolic blood pressure during quiet standing. Eur J Appl Physiol 121, 251–264 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-020-04519-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-020-04519-x