Center of pressure velocity reflects body acceleration rather than body velocity during quiet standing

- The most meaningful interpretation of COP velocity in quiet standing was examined.
- The relationship between postural sway parameters was experimentally investigated.
- We found that COP velocity and COM acceleration are highly correlated.
- A simulation study was performed to further investigate the experimental results.
- The neural motor command contains a large portion proportional to body velocity.

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the center of pressure (COP) velocity reflects the center of mass (COM) acceleration due to a large derivative gain in the neural control system during quiet standing. Twenty-seven young (27.2 ± 4.5 years) and twenty-three elderly (66.2 ± 5.0 years) subjects participated in this study. Each subject was requested to stand quietly on a force plate for five trials, each 90 s long. The COP and COM displacements, the COP and COM velocities, and the COM acceleration were acquired via a force plate and a laser displacement sensor. The amount of fluctuation of each variable was quantified using the root mean square. Following the experimental study, a simulation study was executed to investigate the experimental findings. The experimental results revealed that the COP velocity was correlated with the COM velocity, but more highly correlated with the COM acceleration. The equation of motion of the inverted pendulum model, however, accounts only for the correlation between the COP and COM velocities. These experimental results can be meaningfully explained by the simulation study, which indicated that the neural motor command presumably contains a significant portion that is proportional to body velocity. In conclusion, the COP velocity fluctuation reflects the COM acceleration fluctuation rather than the COM velocity fluctuation, implying that the neural motor command controlling quiet standing posture contains a significant portion that is proportional to body velocity.