Characterizing Height-Induced Adaptation of Postural Control TU Darmstadt, Germany July 2022 - Ongoing

Fear of falling has been found to correlate with increased postural sway, i.e. the oscillations of the center of pressure (CoP) that we experience even while standing quietly. Attempts at a deeper understanding of this correlation have tied behavioral to neurophysiological changes, but a rigorous computational explanation for the behavioral and neurophysiological changes is currently lacking. In this project, we seek to understand how do the computational goals underlying human balance control change when standing at a height.

This project is a collaboration between Cognitive Scientists from Philipps-Universität Marburg (Germany) and Robotics Researchers from Technische Universität Darmstadt (Germany), as a part of The Adaptive Mind researh cluster.

Publications

Spartakov, R., Kshirsagar, A., Mühl, D., Schween, R., Endres, D.M., Bremmer, F., Melzig, C., & Peters, J., Balancing on the Edge: Review and Computational Framework on the Dynamics of Fear of Falling and Fear of Heights in Postural Control, Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci), 2024

Kshirsagar, A., Schween, R., & Engel, D., Multi-Joint Model of Human Upright Stance, GitHub Repository, 2023