Contribution of Central and Peripheral Vision to the Regulation of Stance: Developmental Aspects

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Postural oscillations in 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children were analyzed in four conditions of vision of the environment (complete vision, peripheral vision, central vision and no-vision) and two conditions of ankle somatosensory information (normal and altered support surfaces with a 5-cm-thick foam). Children were more stable with than without vision. This was observed whether children had complete or partial vision (central or peripheral). They were also more stable with the normal than with the altered support surface. Overall, there was no effect of age. Beyond these well-established results, the present experiment showed the complementary role of peripheral and central vision in the regulation of children's posture. For the 6- and 10-year-olds, central and peripheral vision yielded similar postural stability, whereas for the 8-year-olds, central vision yielded greater postural stability than peripheral vision. The analysis of postural oscillations in the medio-lateral and antero-posterior planes showed that, for the three age groups, central vision was as efficient whatever the plane. On the other hand, after age 6, peripheral vision was more efficient for regulating antero-posterior than medio-lateral oscillations. The contribution of the different sensory systems and their interaction for stabilizing posture in children should be specifically interpreted with regard to the operating characteristics of each sensory system at each age.