• Malaya CA
• Haworth J
• Pohlman KA
• Smith DL

• Affiliation / Essence of Wellness Chiropractic Center
• Affiliation / Miami University. Department of Kinesiology and Health
• Affiliation / Oakland University. Department of Human Movement Science
• Affiliation / Parker University. Research Center
• Affiliation / University of Houston. Center for Neuromotor and Biomechanics Research
• Affiliation(G) / United States / Michigan / Rochester
• Affiliation(G) / United States / Ohio / Eaton
• Affiliation(G) / United States / Ohio / Oxford
• Affiliation(G) / United States / Texas / Dallas
• Affiliation(G) / United States / Texas / Houston
• Manipulation, Chiropractic
• Manipulation, Extremities
• Motor Skills
• Open Access Document
• Postural Balance
• Random Allocation

Background: Previous research demonstrated that manipulation of the extremities was associated with changes in multisegmental postural sway as well as improvement in a lower extremity balancing task. We were interested if these effects would extend to an upper extremity task. Our aim in this study was to investigate whether extremity manipulation could influence dual task performance where the explicit suprapostural task was balancing a water filled tube in the frontal plane.

Methods: Participants were healthy volunteers (aged 21–32 years). Upper- or lower-extremity manipulations were delivered in a participant and assessor blinded, randomized crossover, clinical trial. Postural (center of pressure) and suprapostural (tube motion) measurements in the frontal plane were made pre-post manipulation under eyes open and eyes closed conditions using a BTrackS™ force plate and a Shimmer inertial measurement unit, respectively. Pathlength, range, root mean square and sample entropy were calculated to describe each signal during the dual task performance.

Results: There was no main effect of manipulation or vision for the suprapostural task (tube motion). However, follow-up to interaction effects indicates that roll pathlength, range and root means square of tube motion all decreased (improvement) following lower extremity manipulation with eyes open. Regarding the postural task, there was a main effect of manipulation on mediolateral center of pressure such that pathlength reduced with both upper and lower extremity manipulation with larger decreases in pathlength values following upper extremity manipulation.

Conclusion: Our findings show that manipulation of the extremities enhanced stability (e.g. tube stabilization and standing balance) on performance of a dual task. This furthers the argument that site-specific manipulations influence context specific motor behavior/coordination. However, as this study focused only on the immediate effects of extremity manipulation, caution is urged in generalizing these results to longer time frames until more work has been done examining the length of time these effects last.

Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT03877367, Registered 15 March 2019. Data collection took place July 2019.

Author keywords: Chiropractic manipulation - Extremity - Coordination - Motor control - Postural balance

Author affiliations: CAM: Center for Neuromotor and Biomechanics Research, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, United States; CAM, KAP: Research Center, Parker University, Dallas, Texas, United States; JH: Department of Human Movement Science, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, United States; DLS: Department of Kinesiology and Health, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, United States; DLS: Essence of Wellness Chiropractic Center, Eaton, Ohio, United States

This abstract is reproduced with the permission of the publisher; click on the above link for free full text. PubMed Record | PDF