Postural responses to various frequencies of vibration of the triceps surae and forefoot sole during quiet standing

The purpose of this study was to determine the role of somatosensory input to the sensory reference system in quiet standing. We applied vibration (0.5 mm amplitude, 1-60 Hz) to the triceps surae and the forefoot sole to stimulate the muscle spindles and the mechanoreceptors, respectively, and evaluated postural responses. Thirteen young healthy adults who showed backward-lean and forward-lean responses to vibration at high and low frequencies, respectively, participated in the full experiment. The lowest vibration frequencies inducing backward-lean responses (B-LF) were 15-55 Hz for the triceps surae and 16-60 Hz for the forefoot sole. The highest frequencies inducing forward-lean responses (F-HF) were 3-18 Hz for the triceps surae and 1-20 Hz for the forefoot sole. When vibration was simultaneously applied to the triceps surae and forefoot sole at F-HF, no response was induced in 70% of trials. A forward-lean response was induced in the remaining 30% of trials. Simultaneous vibration of the triceps surae and forefoot sole at B-LF induced backward-lean responses in all trials. All postural responses occurred 0.5-4.3 s after vibration onset. Postural responses to high-frequency vibration conceivably occur as a compensatory movement to the illusionary perception that standing position is deviating forward from quiet standing, which must be a reference position. Postural responses to low-frequency vibration possibly occur to equalize the positional information that is received from the triceps surae and the forefoot sole. Both postural responses are likely to involve the sensory reference system, which is located in the supraspinal nervous system.