SENSORI-MOTOR DEGENERATION REVEALED BY COP MEASUREMENT – A PILOT STUDY OF DEVELOPING A QUANTITATIVE METHOD

Abstract

There are ways of preventing falls. One method is a prediction based on an individual’s sensori-motor function. Unfortunately, current methods, based on statistical analyses of data collected across different tests, are contradictory and impractical because of the test diversity. Hence a simple, highly reliable method is desirous from the practitioners’ perspective. The purpose of the research was to develop a practical and quantitative way of diagnosing the age-related degeneration of human sensori-motor function in order to predict the potential fallers. The method was based on individual center of pressure (COP) measurement and an artificial neural network (ANN) model, which was built by using the data of 6 young adults and 4 seniors. The study revealed that one could utilize COP and ANN model to predict sensori-motor degeneration related to age.