The purpose of this work was to plan a test study, where postural perturbations are performed on a person, and during a quiet standing period, we observe the stress response, which occurs after the stability disturbance. The participant stood on force plates and wore a customized belt to which we attached a braided metal wire. With the help of electric servomotors, we pulled the metal wire and caused sudden movements of the person. The force changed in the forward-backward direction (anterior-posterior). The amplitude of the force was always the same and was adjusted to a certain percentage of the participant’s body weight so that the person had to make only one step if he was not able to fully compensate for the stability disturbance. We had four participants. All subjects received ten postural perturbations. They were divided into two groups. One group started with the first backward disturbance and received the other nine in the opposite forward direction. The second group, on the other hand, started with the first disturbance forward and received all the other nine disturbances in the reverse backward direction. We were interested in firstly, the influence of the change in the direction of postural perturbation on the stress response - first and second disturbance. Secondly, the influence of repeated (nine consecutive) postural perturbations on the stress response – from second to tenth disturbance. The center of pressure was monitored with force plates and the center of mass with an active optical marker. Electrodermal activity was measured to assess the stress response. The analysis showed that the general arousal did not differ with the change in the initial direction of perturbation. However, when the direction of postural perturbation was changed from forward to backward, they reacted faster and more strongly.
In recurrent postural perturbations, general arousal decreases after the ninth consecutive disturbance. We find that after the ninth consecutive postural perturbation, a person responds faster and more strongly to a stimulus. Since this was a test study and we only had four participants, no change was statistically significant. The knowledge gained from this work contributes to a better understanding of the human stress response to postural perturbations.
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