Postural stabilization effects of light touch do not come from axis-specific cues of postural sway: A pilot study¹

A light finger touch can stabilize posture despite it not providing enough force to create mechanical support. The underlying mechanism may be due to the finger touch providing information in the axis with the greatest instability. The most appropriate way to test this hypothesis is a dual-axis paradigm, i.e., to remove sway-related information from touch in either anterior-posterior (AP) or mediolateral (ML) axis and then measure postural sway in both axes when the standing posture is equally unstable in AP and ML axes. In this study, 16 participants stood in a feet-together stance, and center of pressure in both axes was measured. Apart from No touch and Stable conditions, the touch surface was manipulated to move in close synchrony with postural sway so as to remove information regarding postural sway in one axis (AP Sway-referenced) or two axes (AP-ML Sway-referenced). The results showed that AP Sway-referenced condition stabilized posture in both axes, whereas AP-ML Sway-referenced condition did not stabilize posture in either axis. The pilot results indicated that touch effects do not come from axis-specific sensory cues of postural sway.