Biomedical

Communication

Biosci. Biotech. Res. Comm. 9(4): 689-693 (2016)

Effectiveness of constrained time of visual data on

angular velocity during sit-to-stand movement

in three planes

Mozhgan Faraji Aylar*, Faramarz Firouzi and Mandana Rahnama Araghi

Faculty of Engineering, Electrical Engineering Department, Imam Reza International University,

Mashhad, Iran

Faculty of engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Mashhad Branch, Islamic

Azad University, Iran

Faculty of Physical Education & Sport Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study investigation was to assess whether time of constrain of visual information in uences the

angular velocities of sit to stand (STS) task in children or not. Five girls with congenital blindness (CB) and ten girls

with no visual impairments were divided into two groups of  ve, control or treatment. The participants in the treat-

ment group were asked to close their eyes (EC) for 20 minutes before the STS test; whereas the ones in the control

group kept their eyes open (EO). The performance of the participants in all three groups was measured using a motion

capture system and two force plates. The results showed that the constrained duration of visual information did not

affect the angular velocities of lower extremity joints in three planes (sagittal, frontal and transverse). These  nding

suggest that vision is not the major in uence factor on the STS kinematics.

KEY WORDS: VISUAL INFORMATION, SIT TO STAND, ANGULAR VELOCITIES, ANATOMICAL PLANES

689

ARTICLE INFORMATION:

*Corresponding Author: m.faraji@imamreza.ac.ir

Received 26

Oct, 2016

Accepted after revision 2

Dec, 2016

BBRC Print ISSN: 0974-6455

Online ISSN: 2321-4007

Thomson Reuters ISI ESC and Crossref Indexed Journal

NAAS Journal Score 2015: 3.48 Cosmos IF : 4.006

reserved.

Online Contents Available at: http//www.bbrc.in/

INTRODUCTION

Sit-to-stand (STS) motion is a demanding activity of

everyday living that is on average performed four times

in an hour (Coghlin & McFadyen, 1994; Music, Kamnik,

& Munih, 2008), and is accepted as being a prerequisite

for gait (Kerr, White, Barr, & Mollan, 1997). Some stud-

ies demonstrated that the hip and knee joints required

highly forces during STS performance greater than gait

and stair ascent (Kerr et al 1994).

Dark adaptation for the visual system is the pro-

cess of adjusting to total darkness or to lower levels

690 EFFECTIVENESS OF CONSTRAINED TIME OF VISUAL DATA ON ANGULAR VELOCITY BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Mozhgan, Faramarz and Mandana

of illumination (Held, 1988). The time of the rod inter-

cept reported is less than or equal to 20 min, usually

8.2 (±1.4) min (Jackson & Edwards, 2008)

and 12.5 min

(Holfort et al 2010), in young and elderly people, respec-

tively. Therefore, in this study, the time of the eyes being

closed was set to be 20 minutes to ensure occurrence of

rod intercept.

Congenitally blind children usually suffer from falls

that result in injury (Jackson, et al 1999) and contusion.

The STS movement is one of the safest tasks for blind

children to perform. The STS movement requires the

coordination of all body segments (Manckoundia et al.

2006) and balance (Treasurer et al 2007). The STS task is

a common activity in daily life (Galli et al 2008), so it is

completely familiar with central nervous system (CNS).

In addition, the study of visual adaptation is important

for a variety of practical reasons as well as for obtaining

an understanding of the effects of the visual information

in performance of the motor tasks. The speci c objective

of the present study was to characterize the kinematics

of STS performance in short- and long-durations dark

adaptation tasks. The fundamental aim of this study was

to develop knowledge about the visual memory during

the STS performance.

METHODS

PARTICIPANTS

The total participants in this study were 15 girls who

were randomly selected. Five of the girls suffered from

congenital blindness (CB) (mean (±standard deviation),

age: 94.6 (±5.58) mo, mass: 25.74 (±2.12) kg, height:

126.82 (±0.05) cm, leg length: 36.62 (±1.58) cm, anterior

superior iliac spines (ASIS) width: 17.76 (±1.23) cm) and

the remaining ten were healthy and did not have any

visual impairments. These ten healthy girls were divided

into two groups.

The subjects in one group (treatment group) closed

their eyes (EC) (age: 93.8 (±5.88) mo, mass: 24.16 (±1.36)

kg, height: 124.24 (±0.044) cm, leg length: 34.56 (±1.13)

cm, ASIS width: 15.84 (±0.64) cm) for 20 minutes

before the STS test was carried out ; whereas the other

group (control group) kept their eyes open (EO) (age:

95.8 (±5.53) mo, mass: 26.06 (±5.21) kg, height: 126.66

(±0.05) cm, leg length: 36.16 (±1.56) cm, ASIS width:

16.46 (±0.95) cm). During the practice and trial phases,

the subjects in the EC group had their eyes closed to pre-

vent any learning taking place through receiving visual

information. The healthy girls had no musculoskeletal or

neuromuscular problems and were considered normally

active. Moreover, blind children were physically active

in daily life and merely suffered from blindness. An

informed oral consent was obtained from each subject

and their parents after they were provided with detailed

information about the study. In addition, a local ethic

committee con rmed the human studies.

DATA COLLECTION

Retro-re ective markers were placed over bony land-

marks including: vertex, seventh cervical vertebra (C7),

spinous process of the twelfth thoracic vertebrae, right

and left of lateral border of the acromion process, right

and left of head of humer us, right and left of olecranon

process of the ulna, right and left of head of styloid pro-

cess of the ulna, right and left of ASIS, right and left of

posterior superior iliac spines (PSIS), right and left of

greater trochanter, right and left of lateral femoral epi-

condyles, right and left of lateral malleoli, right and left

of 5th distal metatarsal heads, right and left of calcaneal

tuberosity.

Before performing the test, the equipment and the

instruments were introduced verbally to the participants

in the EO group; whereas this was done through sense of

touch for the EC and CB groups. The Subjects were bare-

foot and were seated on a  rm chair with no armrest, back

support or wheels. The height of the chairs was adjusted

in a way that corresponded with 100% of the subject’s leg

length, the distance from the lateral femoral condyle to

the ground. During the STS test, the participants had one

foot on each force plate for 3 to 4 s (Kerr, et al. 1994), the

arms were folded across the chest and wore tight shorts.

The subjects sat with their bodies and extremities

(thighs, legs and feet) symmetrically placed relative to

the chair and the width of the feet was determined from

the ASIS width. The subjects in EO group were told to

place their feet within the outer limits of the two force

plates, one foot on each plate. In addition, the subjects

were requested to use a self-selected movement strategy.

The widths of the ASIS for the EC and CB groups were

determined using a thick stick on the force plates. They

were instructed to raise their entire body from the chair at

a self-selected velocity, and keep standing until reaching

the upright position for 3 to 4 s ( Kerr et al., 1994). Each

subject was requested to perform  ve STS trials with 30 s

rests between the trials and had three practices before the

actual test. Lower limb dominance was determined by the

foot used to kick a ball (Burnett et al. 2011).

Two adjusted force plates (9260AA6, Kistler, Switzer-

land) with a sampling frequency of 1000 Hz, were used

to record the ground reaction forces during the perfor-

mance of the STS task. An eight camera video-based

opto-electronic system (Qualisys AB, Sweden, sampling,

100 Hz) was used for 3D motion capture. The Force plates

and the motion data were  ltered using a fourth order

Butterworth  lter (cutoff frequency of 10 Hz) ( Huffman

et al 2015).

BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS EFFECTIVENESS OF CONSTRAINED TIME OF VISUAL DATA ON ANGULAR VELOCITY 691

Mozhgan, Faramarz and Mandana

DATA PROCESSING

Upper extremity markers were used to de ne STS events.

Markers of olecranon process of the ulna and head of

styloid process of the ulna were used to control folded

arms across the chest because all participants were chil-

dren in the investigation. Markers of ASIS, PSIS and

greater trochanter were used to de ne hip joint center.

Segment of head-arm-trunk (HAT), thigh, leg and foot

were de ned by the head of humerus to the hip center,

the hip center to the lateral femoral epicondyle, the lat-

eral femoral epicondyle to the lateral malleoli, the lateral

malleoli to the 5th distal metatarsal heads, respectively.

Flexion, abduction, and internal rotation occurred at

the initiation of movement, when STS entered its  nal

points, was beginning extension, adduction, and exter-

nal rotation at sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes,

respectively.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Descriptive values (means, standard deviations) across

trials were  rst obtained. Data distribution was tested

for homoscedasticity using the Levene’s test. A one-way

repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was

performed to test for the effects of vision on angular

velocities of the lower extremity joints (the hip, knee

and ankle). A two-way repeated measure ANOVA was

performed to test the effects of interaction of a visual-

motor adaptation memory and phases of STS motion on

(1) phase durations and (2) differences between phase

durations. If equal variance was found between groups,

Bonferroni’s post hoc test was used for pair-wise com-

parison of means. If unequal variance was determined

between groups, Tamhane’s was used for pair-wise com-

parison (Highsmith et al., 2011). These analyses were

performed separately for dominant and non-dominant

sides. Differences were considered signi cant at p <

0.05. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS

19.0

software.

RESULTS

The CB group had the lowest value and the EC group got

the highest value among the groups during the prepara-

tion phase. Also, the EO group had the lowest value and

the EC group got the highest value among the groups

during the standing phase and total duration of the STS

performance (Table 1).

On both sides (D and ND) in the sagittal plane, the

EO group at the ankle joint had the lowest value and

Table 1: Phase durations of sit-to-stand (STS) motion

Congenital blindness Eyes closed Eyes open

Phase I (preparation phase) 0.48 ± 0.30 0.614 ± 0.36 0.492 ± 0.09

Phase II (rising phase) 0.888 ± 0.53 1.22 ± 0.55 0.568 ± 0.12

Total duration of STS motion 1.308 ± 0.51 1.834 ± 0.39 1.06 ± 0.13

Values are in second: mean ± SD.

Table 2: Means for ankle, knee, and hip angular velocity for congenital blindness, eyes closed, and eyes open groups at

dominant and non-dominant sides during sit-to-stand in sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes.

Sagittal plane

Eyes openEyes closedCongenital blindness

Non-DominantDominantNon-DominantDominantNon-DominantDominant

1.24 ± 7.382.58 ± 4.015.53 ± 3.517.35 ± 5.7710.72 ± 6.947.02 ± 3.71Ankle

58.56 ± 14.8158.43 ± 9.7141.08 ± 11.1943.63 ± 14.0560.39 ± 26.2259.49 ± 24.04Knee

56.06 ± 7.0057.48 ± 7.5134.60 ± 6.4336.50 ± 9.4652.26 ± 24.2754.35 ± 24.96Hip

Frontal plane

-4.19 ± 7.2810.84 ± 7.774.35 ± 5.407.76 ± 6.929.62 ± 13.988.77 ± 6.38Ankle

12.57 ± 12.3211.87 ± 12.0110.96 ± 6.5810.81 ± 6.895.91 ± 7.4820.23 ± 10.13Knee

12.58 ± 12.187.94 ± 6.805.32 ± 8.29-.72 ± 17.406.79 ± 3.8511.13 ± 7.27Hip

Transverse plane

-14.62 ± 45.717.15 ± 17.5817.35 ± 13.058.37 ± 13.1621.73 ± 34.2825.21 ± 17.92Ankle

-21. 01 ± 51.32-7.66 ± 8.3124.95 ± 32.8049.11 ± 44.4124.53 ± 38.778.74 ± 13.56Knee

-29. 10 ± 22.48-.25 ± 24.38-.32 ± 10.5614.36 ± 30.4816.17 ± 39.44-12.54 ± 11.90Hip

Values are in degree/second: mean ± SD.

692 EFFECTIVENESS OF CONSTRAINED TIME OF VISUAL DATA ON ANGULAR VELOCITY BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Mozhgan, Faramarz and Mandana

at the hip joint reached the highest value among the

groups. In addition, the EC group at the knee and hip

joints obtained the lowest value among the groups. Fur-

thermore, the CB group got the highest angular velocity

among the groups in both sides of the lower extrem-

ity except at the D side of the ankle joint. In frontal

plane, the EC group at the hip joints reached the lowest

value among the groups. In vertical plan, the EO group

at the ankle and the knee joints obtained the lowest

value and the CB group had the highest value among

the groups (Table 2). However, no signi cant difference

was observed among the groups at three plans.

DISCUSSION

The fundamental aim of this study was to investi-

gate how short (EC group) and long (CB group) terms

restricted visual memory affect the angular velocities of

the lower extremity joints during the STS movements.

The results of this study were consistent with those of

some previously conducted studies (Hennington et al.,

2004; Santos et al. 2013; Yasin et al. 2008). In this study,

the longest time of STS performance was dedicated to

standing phase among the all participants (Table 1).

The EC group had the highest time of the STS move-

ment. This result exhibits that blind people hurry to rise

from chair (i.e. seat-off point), although they had a little

patience in the standing phase.

Hennington and others have reported at 0.583 (±0.117),

0.661 (±0.288), and 1.242 (±0.117) seconds for before

seat-off, after seat-off and total duration of STS motion,

respectively between 4.3 to 11.8 years old. In the present

study, the duration of preparation phase was 0.48(±.30),

0.614(±.36), and 0.492(±.09) seconds for the CB, EC and

EO groups, respectively (Hennington et al., 2004). In the

preparation phase, the present study was similar to the

result of Hennington’s study, but for the EC group a little

difference has been observed in the standing phase and

the total duration of the STS movement.

In Seven’s study, total duration of STS motion was

reported at 1.34 (±0.31) for 9.6 (±1.2) years old, our  nd-

ing in the EC group was slightly different from the value

(Yasin et al 2008). In Santos’s study, the total duration of

the STS movement was reported at 1.34 (±0.15) and 1.48

(±0.19) seconds for the dominant and non-dominant

sides, respectively (Santos et al 2013). In the EO and CB

group the value were less than Santos’s data. In Santos’s

study age of participants’ age were different from this

study, and then maybe this difference is related to the

age. Because, it approved that young children (12 to 18

months old) with an increase in their age, there is an

inclination toward a rise in the number of successful tri-

als and a fall in the total duration of the STS movement

(Costa & Rocha, 2013).

In the control groups of Park’s study, total duration

of STS performance was 3.13 (±0.53) seconds; the value

is signi cantly different from the present study because

Park de ned initiation of the STS from start of sacral

marker trajectory and ending of movement when all of

markers were ceased (Park et al., 2003). However, the

present study was different in de ning the start and end

point of the movement.

In this study, there was no signi cant difference

between groups at three plans in the angular velocity of

the lower extremities (Table 2). These result exhibit that

the kinematics of blind people was similar to healthy

subjects and the time of constrain of visual data does

not affect the angular velocity in children during the

STS performance. Another studies proved that the STS

movement mostly perform in the sagittal plane relative

to the other plans(Chen et al. 2013; Yoshioka et al 2012).

However, in the present study has not been observed any

signi cant differences among the three groups in the

sagittal plan. Moreover, O’Meara and et al. reported any

signi cant differences related to the angular velocity

among the groups during the STS motion in the sagittal

plan (O’Meara & Smith, 2006).

This research imposes a limitation to the time of eyes

being closed among the participants in the EC group as

the participants in this study were in their early child-

hood and tolerating having their eyes closed for lengthy

periods of time was a little hard for them. Consequently,

there were no signi cant differences among the groups

in three anatomical plans related to the angular velocity

of the lower extremities; however, all of participants had

self-selected speed for the rising from chair. It exhib-

its CNS’s congenital blind children could manage chal-

lenges of the dominant and non-dominant sides during

the STS maneuver.

REFERENCES

Burnett, D. R., Campbell-Kyureghyan, N. H., Cerrito, P. B., &

Quesada, P. M. (2011). Symmetry of ground reaction forces and

muscle activity in asymptomatic subjects during walking, sit-

to-stand, and stand-to-sit tasks. Journal of Electromyography

and Kinesiology, 21, 610–615.

Chen, T., Chang, C.-C., & Chou, L.-S. (2013). Sagittal plane

center of mass movement strategy and joint kinetics during

sit-to-walk in elderly fallers. Clinical Biomechanics, 28(7),

807–812. doi: 10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2013.07.002

Coghlin, D. S. S., & McFadyen, B. J. (1994). Transfer strategies

used to rise from a chair in normal and low back pain sub-

jects. Clinical Biomechanics, 9(2), 85-92. doi: 10.1016/0268-

0033(94)90029-9

Costa, C. S. N. D., & Rocha, N. A. C. (2013). Sit-to-stand move-

ment in children: A longitudinal study based on kinematics

data. Human Movement Science, 32, 836–846.

BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS EFFECTIVENESS OF CONSTRAINED TIME OF VISUAL DATA ON ANGULAR VELOCITY 693

Mozhgan, Faramarz and Mandana

Galli, M., Cimolin, V., Crivellini, M., & Campanini, I. (2008).

Quantitative analysis of sit to stand movement: experimen-

tal set-up de nition and application to healthy and hemiple-

gic adults. Gait & Posture, 28(1), 80–85. doi: 10.1016/j.gait-

post.2007.10.003

Held, R. (1988). Vision and Visual Systems Sensory System I

(pp. 71-73). Boston: Readings from the Encyclopedia of Neu-

roscience.

Hennington, G., Johnson, J., Penrose, J., Barr, K., McMulkin,

M. L., & Linden, D. W. V. (2004). Effect of bench height on sit-

to-stand in children without disabilities and children with cer-

ebral palsy. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation,

85(1), 70–76. doi: 10.1016/S0003-9993(03)00407-6

Highsmith, M. J., Kahle, J. T., Carey, S. L., Lura, D. J., Dubey, R.

V., Csavina, K. R., & Quillen, W. S. (2011). Kinetic asymmetry in

transfemoral amputees while performing sit to stand and stand

to sit movements. Gait & Posture, 34, 86–91.

Holfort, S. K., Jackson, G. R., & Larsen, M. (2010). Dark adap-

tation during transient hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes.

Experimental Eye Research, 91(5), 710–714. doi: 10.1016/j.

exer.2010.08.017

Huffman, K. D., Sanford, B. A., Zucker-Levin, A. R., Williams,

J. L., & Mihalko, W. M. (2015). Increased hip abduction in high

body mass index subjects during sit-to-stand. Gait & Posture,

41, 640–645.

Jackson, G. R., & Edwards, J. G. (2008). A short-duration dark

adaptation protocol for assessment of age-related maculopa-

thy. Journal of Ocular Biology, Diseases, and Informatics, 1(1),

7–11. doi: 10.1007/s12177-008-9002-6

Jackson, G. R., Owsley, C., & Jr, G. M. (1999). Aging and dark

adaptation Vision Research (Vol. 39, pp. 3975–3982).

Kerr, K., White, J., Barr, D., & Mollan, R. (1994). Analysis of

the sit-stand-sit movement cycle: development of a measure-

ment system. Gait & Posture, 2(3), 173-181. doi: 10.1016/0966-

6362(94)90005-1

Kerr, K., White, J., Barr, D., & Mollan, R. (1997). Analy-

sis of the sit-stand-sit movement cycle in normal subjects.

Clinical Biomechanics, 12(4), 236–245. doi: 10.1016/S0268-

0033(96)00077-0

Kerr, K. M., White, J. A., Barr, D. A., & Mollan, R. A. B. (1994).

Standardization and de nitions of the sit-stand-sit movement

cycle. Gait & Posture, 2(3), 182-190.

Manckoundia, P., Mourey, F., P tzenmeyer, P., & Papaxanthis,

C. (2006). Comparison of motor strategies in sit-to-stand and

back-to-sit motions between healthy and Alzheimer’s disease

elderly subjects. Neuroscience, 137(2), 385–392.

Music, J., Kamnik, R., & Munih, M. (2008). Model based iner-

tial sensing of human body motion kinematics in sit-to-stand

movement. Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory, 16(8),

933–944. doi: 10.1016/j.simpat.2008.05.005

O’Meara, D. M., & Smith, R. M. (2006). The effects of unilateral

grab rail assistance on the sit-to-stand performance of older

aged adults. Human Movement Science, 25, 257-274. doi:

10.1016/j.humov.2005.11.003

Park, E. S., Park, C.-i., Lee, H. J., Kim, D. Y., Lee, D. S., &

Cho, S.-R. (2003). The characteristics of sit-to-stand transfer in

young children with spastic cerebral palsy based on kinematic

and kinetic data. Gait and Posture, 17, 43-49.

Santos, A. N. d., Pava˜o, S. L., Santiago, P. R. P., Salvini, T. d. F.,

& Rocha, N. A. C. F. (2013). Sit-to-stand movement in children

with hemiplegic cerebral palsy: relationship with knee exten-

sor torque and social participation. Research in Developmental

Disabilities, 34(6), 2023-2032.

Santos, A. N. d., Pavão, S. L., Santiago, P. R. P., Salvini, a. d. F.,

& Rocha, N. A. C. F. (2013). Sit-to-stand movement in children

with hemiplegic cerebral palsy: Relationship with knee exten-

sor torque and social participation. Research in Developmental

Disabilities, 34(6), 2023–2032. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2013.03.021

Seven, Y. B., Akalan, N. E., & Yucesoy, C. A. (2008). Effects of

back loading on the biomechanics of sit-to-stand motion in

healthy children. Human Movement Science, 27(1), 65-79. doi:

10.1016/j.humov.2007.11.001

Seven, Y. B., Akalan, N. E., & Yucesoy, C. A. (2008). Effects

of back loading on the biomechanics of sit-to-stand motion

in healthy children. Human Movement Science, 27(1),

65–79.

Treasurer, J. W., Cox, D. I., & Wall, T. (2007). Epidemiology

of blindness and cataracts in cage reared ongrown Atlan-

tic halibut Hippoglossus hippoglossus. Aquaculture, 271,

77-84.

Yoshioka, S., Nagano, A., Hay, D. C., & Fukashiro, S. (2012).

The minimum required muscle force for a sit-to-stand task.

Journal of Biomechanics, 45(4), 699–705. doi: 10.1016/j.jbio-

mech.2011.11.054