05: Retropulsion and disturbed verticality perception in neurological patients

摘要

Objective: Patients with retropulsion show a posterior shift of their center of mass relative to the base of support in sitting and/or standing, a tendency to fall backwards and active resistance to passive correction. This behavior has been observed in different neurological disorders [2]. However, there is insufficient research about retropulsion, and knowledge about the pathophysiological mechanisms is missing. Similar to latero-pulsion in the roll plane [1], we hypothesize that retropulsion is associated with a disturbed inner reference of verticality in the pitch plane. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between retropulsion and the subjective postural vertical (SPV) as well as the subjective spontaneous body position.