Head posture control under perturbed conditions in progressive supranuclear palsy patients

IntroductionIn neurodegenerative brain diseases like Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), clinical studies underscore the crucial role of head motion deficits. Similarly, advanced stage Idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (IPD) is known to display significantly altered posture control and balance patter...

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Main Authors: Vittorio Lippi, Christoph Maurer, Christian Haverkamp, Stefan Kammermeier
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2025-05-01
Series:Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
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Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2025.1466809/full
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author Vittorio Lippi
Vittorio Lippi
Christoph Maurer
Christian Haverkamp
Christian Haverkamp
Stefan Kammermeier
author_facet Vittorio Lippi
Vittorio Lippi
Christoph Maurer
Christian Haverkamp
Christian Haverkamp
Stefan Kammermeier
author_sort Vittorio Lippi
collection DOAJ
description IntroductionIn neurodegenerative brain diseases like Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), clinical studies underscore the crucial role of head motion deficits. Similarly, advanced stage Idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (IPD) is known to display significantly altered posture control and balance patterns involving the head segment.MethodsThis study investigates the relative differences in head control during a perturbed upright stance paradigm between patients affected by PSP and IPD, compared to healthy control subjects using dynamic system modeling. The resulting neural model underlines how PSP primarily affects head control, whereas IPD primarily affects the control of the whole body’s center of mass. A neck control model, based on the hypothesis of modular posture control, is proposed to emulate the PSP data in particular.ResultsA larger passive stiffness was observed for both groups of patients, with eyes closed, suggesting that the head moves together with the trunk. With eyes open, the active proportional gain KP is relatively larger in all cases, indicating that the head is directed closer to the vertical by the visual contribution. Since this was held for all investigated groups, findings support the notion of intact visual contribution to posture control among PSP and IPD despite the impaired supranuclear eye guidance among PSP.DiscussionThe proposed neural model’s characteristics will aid in future patient data analysis, disease progression monitoring, and possible modulation of disease-specific features through therapeutic intervention. For engineering and robotics implementations, uses for strengthened resilience of head stabilization are discussed.
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spelling doaj-art-b2e3578c8a99465faabe0ad8371366312025-08-20T02:34:10ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience1662-51372025-05-011910.3389/fnsys.2025.14668091466809Head posture control under perturbed conditions in progressive supranuclear palsy patientsVittorio Lippi0Vittorio Lippi1Christoph Maurer2Christian Haverkamp3Christian Haverkamp4Stefan Kammermeier5Institut für Digitalisierung in der Medizin, Medizinische Fakultät und Universitätsklinikum, Universtität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, GermanyNeurozentrum der Uniklinik Freiburg, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, GermanyInstitut für Digitalisierung in der Medizin, Medizinische Fakultät und Universitätsklinikum, Universtität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, GermanyInstitut für Digitalisierung in der Medizin, Medizinische Fakultät und Universitätsklinikum, Universtität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, GermanyNeurozentrum der Uniklinik Freiburg, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, GermanyNeurologische Klinik und Poliklinik, LMU Klinikum, Ludwig Maximilians Universität, Munich, GermanyIntroductionIn neurodegenerative brain diseases like Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), clinical studies underscore the crucial role of head motion deficits. Similarly, advanced stage Idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (IPD) is known to display significantly altered posture control and balance patterns involving the head segment.MethodsThis study investigates the relative differences in head control during a perturbed upright stance paradigm between patients affected by PSP and IPD, compared to healthy control subjects using dynamic system modeling. The resulting neural model underlines how PSP primarily affects head control, whereas IPD primarily affects the control of the whole body’s center of mass. A neck control model, based on the hypothesis of modular posture control, is proposed to emulate the PSP data in particular.ResultsA larger passive stiffness was observed for both groups of patients, with eyes closed, suggesting that the head moves together with the trunk. With eyes open, the active proportional gain KP is relatively larger in all cases, indicating that the head is directed closer to the vertical by the visual contribution. Since this was held for all investigated groups, findings support the notion of intact visual contribution to posture control among PSP and IPD despite the impaired supranuclear eye guidance among PSP.DiscussionThe proposed neural model’s characteristics will aid in future patient data analysis, disease progression monitoring, and possible modulation of disease-specific features through therapeutic intervention. For engineering and robotics implementations, uses for strengthened resilience of head stabilization are discussed.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2025.1466809/fullprogressive supranuclear palsyhead motionmodelingfeedback control systemsparameters identificationposture control
spellingShingle Vittorio Lippi
Vittorio Lippi
Christoph Maurer
Christian Haverkamp
Christian Haverkamp
Stefan Kammermeier
Head posture control under perturbed conditions in progressive supranuclear palsy patients
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
progressive supranuclear palsy
head motion
modeling
feedback control systems
parameters identification
posture control
title Head posture control under perturbed conditions in progressive supranuclear palsy patients
title_full Head posture control under perturbed conditions in progressive supranuclear palsy patients
title_fullStr Head posture control under perturbed conditions in progressive supranuclear palsy patients
title_full_unstemmed Head posture control under perturbed conditions in progressive supranuclear palsy patients
title_short Head posture control under perturbed conditions in progressive supranuclear palsy patients
title_sort head posture control under perturbed conditions in progressive supranuclear palsy patients
topic progressive supranuclear palsy
head motion
modeling
feedback control systems
parameters identification
posture control
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2025.1466809/full
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