Direction and amplitude precuing has no effect on automatic posture responses

Automatic postural responses of leg muscles to the sudden displacement of standing support were investigated under four different conditions of information given to subjects in advance. Results from three groups of subjects were compared: 6 normal subjects, 10 patients with cerebellar disease, and 9 patients with Parkinson's disease. Specifically, each subject was provided with visual information about the direction and/or the amplitude of an upcoming platform tilt. For the control situation no advance information on the characteristics of platform tilt was provided. Neither the latencies nor the integrals of postural EMG-responses showed alterations with advance information. In contrast, in a control experiment in which 3 normal subjects had to perform large or small forward or backward voluntary movements of the body around the ankle joint, shorter onset-latencies of leg muscle EMG responses were observed with increasing complexity of the advance information. These results suggest that, unlike voluntary movements, postural responses to rapid surface tilts do not benefit from advance visual information on direction or amplitude of a postural disturbance.