Quantifying the weights of sensory influences on postural control across development

BACKGROUND: This study examined the weighting of multisensory and anthropometric factors in driving children’s and adult’s postural control. METHOD: A data set was created by aggregating individual participants’ postural stability measures from four target studies, employing participants ranging in age from 3 to 11 years, along with young adults. Using a meta-regression approach, this aggregate data set was then predicted from dummy codings of the including visual, haptic, and proprioceptive sensory inputs manipulated in these studies, as well as the anthropometric factor of participant height. Two forms of coding regimens were examined – one capturing simple presence versus absence of sensory sources, and one quantifying the degree of stability provided by sensory sources. RESULTS: The results of this study revealed that proprioceptive input had the strongest impact on stability, followed by roughly equivalent visual and haptic inputs, and finally anthropometric factors. Developmentally, this pattern of findings was stable by 5- to 7-years of age. Although both coding schemes predicted posture, the degree of stability coding scheme provided consistently superior predictions. INTERPRETATION: These findings are discussed with respect to a multicomponential approach to postural control, a framework that emphasizes the importance of multiple component factors in characterizing complex behavior.