Movement independence requires the ability to balance independently and to adapt balance abilities to a variety of contexts. Postural or
balance control is the foundation underlying performance of most other movement tasks, such as walking and eye-hand coordination skills.

Marjorie Woollacott has been the director of the Motor Control Lab at the University of Oregon for the past 17 years. One of her areas of expertise is aging and falls. She is exploring the factors leading to loss of balance function in the older adult, in order to improve the quality of life and independence of adults well into old age. In addition, she is studying the development of balance control in normal children and in children with motor problems such as Cerebral palsy and Down Syndrome. She is currently designing new assessment and treatment strategies to improve balance function in both the child with motor problems and in the older adult who is prone to losses of balance and falls.

She has co-authored with Dr. Anne Shumway-Cook a major texbook used in Physical Therapy schools across the US and Europe titled "Motor Control: Theory and Practical Applications" (Williams and Wilkins, 1995). She has an ongoing grant from National Institutes of Health to study balance and falls in the older adult ($915,000) and a grant from National Science Foundation to study the development of balance and locomotion in children ($180,000). She is also past president of the International Society for Posture and Gait Research.

In the studies on aging and balance control, older adults are asked to walk across a platform that may unexpectedly move forward, simulating a slip on ice or another slippery surface. Muscles that are activated to restore balance are tibialis anterior (TA), rectus femoris (RF), gluteus medius (GME) and abdominals (AB). Older adults have delayed onset latencies, longer burst durations and smaller burst magnitudes in these muscles compared to young adults.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Chong RKY, Horak F, Woollacott MH (1999) Time-dependent influence of sensorimotor set on automatic responses in perturbed stance. Exp Brain Research 124: 513-519 [Full text PDF]

Sundermier L, Woollacott MH (1998) The influence of vision on the automatic postural muscle responses of newly standing and newly walking infants. Exp Brain Research 120: 537-540 [Full text PDF]

Tang P-F, Woollacott MH, Chong RKY (1998) Control of reactive balance adjustments in perturbed human walking: roles of proximal and distal postural muscle activity. Exp Brain Research 119: 141-152 [Full text PDF]

Shumway-Cook A, Woollacott M, Kerns KA, Baldwin M (1997) The effects of two types of cognitive tasks on postural stability in older adults with and without a history of falls. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 52: M232-M240 [Medline Abstract]

Sveistrup H, Woollacott MH (1997) Practice modifies the developing automatic postural response. Exp Brain Res 114: 33-43 [Full test PDF]

Woollacott MH, Tang PF (1997) Balance control during walking in the older adult: research and its implications. Phys Ther 77: 646-660 [Medline Abstract]

McChesney JW, Sveistrup H, Woollacott MH (1996) Influence of auditory precuing on automatic postural responses. Exp Brain Res 108: 15-320 [Medline Abstract]

Sundermier L, Woollacott MH, Jensen JL, Moore S (1996) Postural sensitivity to visual flow in aging adults with and without balance
problems. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci  51:M45-M52 [Medline Abstract]

Woollacott MH, Burtner P (1996) Neural and musculoskeletal contributions to the development of stance balance control in typical children and in children with cerebral palsy. Acta Paediatr Suppl 416: 58-62 [Medline Abstract]

Hu MH, Woollacott MH (1994) Multisensory training of standing balance in older adults: I. Postural stability and one-leg stance balance. J Gerontol  49: M52-M61 [Medline Abstract]

Hu MH, Woollacott MH (1994) Multisensory training of standing balance in older adults: II. Kinematic and electromyographic postural responses. J Gerontol 49: M62-M71 [Medline Abstract]

Woollacott MH, Manchester DL (1993) Anticipatory postural adjustments in older adults: are changes in response characteristics due to changes in strategy? J Gerontol  48: M64-M70 [Medline Abstract]