Library · Physiology
Posture
Make it clearer
Holding yourself upright seems like the easiest thing in the world, yet it is one of the most complicated things the body does. Postural and balance control does not depend on one single thing: it takes the motor networks, the sensory ones, the visual ones, the cognitive ones and the vestibular ones, the inner ear networks that detect the position of the head, all at once.
In a healthy person it works with three sources of information. The visual one, that is, what the eyes see. The somatosensory one, which is what the skin, the muscles and the joints report about where each part is. And the vestibular one, from the inner ear. The central nervous system adds those three signals together and sends back a corrective motor response. Standing is not staying still: it is correcting all the time.
That is why, if one of those circuits is disrupted, postural instability can appear, the inability to keep your balance. Not only while moving: also standing still, and at the moment a movement is being prepared.
In brief
Control of posture and balance is a multifactorial activity that depends on integrating motor, sensory, visual, cognitive and vestibular neural networks.
In a healthy person that control relies on visual, somatosensory and vestibular information: the central nervous system integrates those signals and produces a corrective motor response.
Standing is not staying still: it is correcting all the time.
If any of those circuits is disrupted, postural instability can appear, the inability to keep your balance at rest or when preparing a movement.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingPostural Instability, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated