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Can a thin mechanical stimulation on the plantar arch affect the head mobility? A preliminary report

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Abstract

Background

Successfully controlling head posture demands the integration of sensory information arising from different receptors. Of particular interest is the influence of feet mechanoreceptors on the control of head position in space.

Aim

We ask whether a thin plantar insert can modify the range of motion (RoM) of the head and whether changes in RoM depend on the foot site where the insoles are positioned.

Methods

Twenty-four healthy subjects were randomly assigned to either experimental or control group. A plantar insole with a half-moon shape (1.5 mm thick) was used to stimulate the feet mechanoreceptors. For both groups, the head RoM in each of the three anatomical planes was assessed before and after participants walked for 15 min at 4 km/h on the treadmill. This procedure was applied four times for subjects in the experimental group: For each trial subjects walked with a plantar insole placed at a specific, foot location. Changes in head RoM were assessed through a symmetry index, accounting for differences in movement direction.

Results

In the control group, no pre–post differences in the symmetry index were observed for the sagittal, frontal and horizontal planes. Similarly, for the intervention group, ANOVA did not reveal both main and interaction effects of time and insole position on the symmetry index for the three planes of movement.

Conclusion

Our results do not evidence any effect of a 1.5-mm-thick mechanical stimulus on the head mobility, regardless of where the insole was placed for the latter group.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Funding

No funding was received for conducting this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Marco Alessandria

  2. Laboratory for Engineering of the Neuromuscular System (LISiN), Department of Electronics and Telecommunication, Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy

    Simona Campisi & Taian M. Vieira

  3. Department of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Rome, Italy

    Simona Campisi

  4. PolitoBIOMed Lab, Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy

    Taian M. Vieira

Authors
  1. Marco Alessandria
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  2. Simona Campisi
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  3. Taian M. Vieira
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Contributions

MA: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Writing - Original Draft, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration. SC: Software, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing - Original Draft. TMV: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing - Original Draft, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marco Alessandria.

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Conflict of interest

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Bioethics Committee of the University of Turin, number of protocol (No. 451939).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Alessandria, M., Campisi, S. & Vieira, T.M. Can a thin mechanical stimulation on the plantar arch affect the head mobility? A preliminary report. Sport Sci Health 19, 495–501 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-022-01032-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-022-01032-w

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