Human Standing Posture Motion Evaluation by the Visual Simulation of Multi-Directional Sea-Waves

Abstract

Crew fatigue from standing posture motion, caused by ship motion, can lead to marine accidents. Therefore, the mechanism of fatigue in crew members ought to be elucidated. The standing posture of humans is maintained by postural state detection through the visual, vestibular, and somatosensory systems. Humans can adjust their posture through corrective postural reactions (CPR) generated after anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) by using information from these sensory systems. APAs refer to skills acquired by learning from past motions and perturbations and are prepared by the central nervous system based on visual information before the actual perturbation occurs. We hypothesized that APAs would decrease fatigue in crew members by stabilizing their standing posture motions. We aimed to clarify the human standing posture control influenced by APAs based on visual information. To this end, we presented wave images with different wave directions to the participants using a visual simulator and analyzed their standing posture motion. We found that the participants stabilized their standing posture based on the projected wave directions. This showed that the participants predicted ship motion from the wave images and controlled their center of pressure (COP) through APAs. Individual differences in standing postural motion may indicate the subjective variation of APAs based on individual experiences. This study was limited to males aged 20–23 years. To generalize this study, randomized controlled trials should be performed with participants of multiple age groups, including men and women.