TRAINING IMPROVES THE ADAPTATION TO CHANGING VISUAL CONDITIONS IN MAINTAINING HUMAN POSTURE CONTROL IN A TEST OF SINUSOIDAL OSCILLATION OF THE SUPPORT

Balance control relies on somesthetic, visual and vestibular afference s, their central processing, and adequate motor responses. We studied the consequences on postural control of the suppression of visual affe rences by eye closure, during a dynamic posturographic test in six spo rtsmen and 14 non-sportsmen. Suppression of visual afferences during t he test led to a prolongation of the pattern initially recorded with e yes open, followed by a transitory adaptive pattern, then a typical ey es closed pattern. Repetition of the test showed a progressively longe r persistence of the eyes open pattern and disappearance of the adapti ve one. This evolution was significantly faster in sportsmen. This pro gressively longer duration of the eyes open pattern may be explained b y the intervention of short term memory. Our data further indicate tha t training improves adaptive posture control. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scienc e Ireland Ltd.