Postural Control during Progressively Increased Balance-Task Difficulty in Athletes with Unilateral Transfemoral Amputation: Effect of Ocular Mobility and Visuomotor Processing

Michał Zwierko, Piotr Lesiakowski and Teresa Zwierko
Additional contact information
Michał Zwierko: Department of Health Sciences, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-367 Wroclaw, Poland
Piotr Lesiakowski: Department of Physical Education and Sport, Pomeranian Medical University, 70-123 Szczecin, Poland
Teresa Zwierko: Institute of Physical Culture Sciences, Laboratory of Kinesiology in Functional and Structural Human Research Centre, University of Szczecin, 70-240 Szczecin, Poland

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-10

Abstract: This study examined postural control during single leg stance test with progressively increased balance-task difficulty in soccer players with unilateral transfemoral amputation (n = 11) compared to able-bodied soccer players (n = 11). The overall stability index (OSI), the anterior/posterior stability index, and the medial/lateral stability index during three balance tasks with increasing surface instability were estimated. The oculomotor and visuomotor contribution to postural control in disabled athletes was analyzed. Oculomotor function, simple and choice reaction times, and peripheral perception were assessed in a series of visuomotor tests. The variation in OSI demonstrated significantly greater increases during postural tests with increased balance-task difficulty in the able-bodied soccer players compared to amputees (F (2,40) = 3.336, p < 0.05). Ocular mobility index correlated ( p < 0.05) with OSI in conditions of increasing balance-task difficulty. Moreover, speed of eye-foot reaction has positive influence ( p < 0.05) on stability indexes in tasks with an unstable surface. Amputee soccer players displayed comparable postural stability to able-bodied soccer players. Disabled athletes had better adaptability in restoring a state of balance in conditions of increased balance-task difficulty than the controls. The speed of visuomotor processing, characterized mainly by speed of eye-foot reaction, significantly contributed to these results.

Keywords: amputee soccer players; balance; saccades; Vienna Test System (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/17/6242/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/17/6242/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:17:p:6242-:d:405100

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().