Frontiers in Physiology (Sep 2022)

Biosignal processing methods to explore the effects of side-dominance on patterns of bi- and unilateral standing stability in healthy young adults

  • János Négyesi,
  • Bálint Petró,
  • Diane Nabil Salman,
  • Ahsan Khandoker,
  • Péter Katona,
  • Ziheng Wang,
  • Anfal Ibrahim Sanqour Qambar Almaazmi,
  • Tibor Hortobágyi,
  • Tibor Hortobágyi,
  • Tibor Hortobágyi,
  • Tibor Hortobágyi,
  • Márk Váczi,
  • Kristóf Rácz,
  • Zsófia Pálya,
  • László Grand,
  • Rita M. Kiss,
  • Ryoichi Nagatomi,
  • Ryoichi Nagatomi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.965702
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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We examined the effects of side-dominance on the laterality of standing stability using ground reaction force, motion capture (MoCap), and EMG data in healthy young adults. We recruited participants with strong right (n = 15) and left (n = 9) hand and leg dominance (side-dominance). They stood on one or two legs on a pair of synchronized force platforms for 50 s with 60 s rest between three randomized stance trials. In addition to 23 CoP-related variables, we also computed six MoCap variables representing each lower-limb joint motion time series. Moreover, 39 time- and frequency-domain features of EMG data from five muscles in three muscle groups were analyzed. Data from the multitude of biosignals converged and revealed concordant patterns: no differences occurred between left- and right-side dominant participants in kinetic, kinematic, or EMG outcomes during bipedal stance. Regarding single leg stance, larger knee but lower ankle joint kinematic values appeared in left vs right-sided participants during non-dominant stance. Left-vs right-sided participants also had lower medial gastrocnemius EMG activation during non-dominant stance. While right-side dominant participants always produced larger values for kinematic data of ankle joint and medial gastrocnemius EMG activation during non-dominant vs dominant unilateral stance, this pattern was the opposite for left-sided participants, showing larger values when standing on their dominant vs non-dominant leg, i.e., participants had a more stable balance when standing on their right leg. Our results suggest that side-dominance affects biomechanical and neuromuscular control strategies during unilateral standing.

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