Transient change in standing posture after linear treadmill locomotion

Postural sway was measured in 24 healthy subjects after running or walking with eyes open on a standard treadmill exerciser, The speeds of running and walking were set at 10 and 7 km/h, respectively, and locomotion was mainta ined for 7 min, The postural sway response was characterized by systematic forward displacement followed by gradual decay to baseline and was accompan ied by self-motion perception, Mean fore-back postural after sway was signi ficantly greater after treadmill running than after normal running. The aft ereffects of treadmill walking were significantly less than those of treadm ill running. The 6 subjects showing distinct forward postural sway after tr eadmill walking were instructed to walk on the treadmill with their eyes cl osed. After this, none of the 6 subjects felt self-motion perception and ha d no evidence of postural aftersway. These results clearly demonstrate that vision during treadmill locomotion plays an important role in evoking post ural sway after treadmill locomotion, It can be inferred that somatosensory /motor signals may be stored during visual-somatosensory/motor conflict and that this stored information may evoke postural change and self-motion per ception.