Behavioral information effects on postural control intrinsic dynamics

The purpose of this study was to examine possible changes in the intrinsic dynamics of children and adults resulting from external information in upright stance task. Ten eight-year-old children and ten young adults, both genders, maintained upright position inside a moving room that was continuously moved frontward and backward. Participants were informed about the room movement and they were requested to sway or not sway with the moving room. The results showed that visual manipulation induces correspondent body sway (intrinsic dynamics) in children and adults. Information about the room movement and the request of an action (behavioral information) changed the relation between visual information and body sway. Although it can be changed, children showed more difficulty in changing the intrinsic dynamics than adults, showing that they are more dependent on intrinsic dynamics than adults. These findings bring important implications to learning, suggesting that children's learning opportunities must be structured properly in order to provide condition of intrinsic dynamics changes towards the goals of the task at hand.