Mechanically evoked cerebral potentials to sudden ankle dorsiflexion in human subjects during standing

Abstract

Mechanically evoked cerebral potentials (MECP) were studied in humans standing on a movable platform with three different stance widths. A sudden platform tilt of 4 degrees produced ankle dorsiflexion and resulted in scalp potentials of five distinct components, the earliest being a positive deflection at 35/60 ms. Their latencies have shown fairly consistent values among the three stance widths, while the amplitudes underwent some significant changes under the wide stance condition as compared with tightly close feet. These findings were interpreted as purporting evidence of altered somaesthetic afferent input from lower limbs during standing with widely apart support surface.