Postural control in the elephant

As the largest extant legged animals, elephants arguably face the most extreme challenge for stable standing. In this study, we investigated the displacement of the centre of pressure of 12 elephants during quiet standing. We found that the average amplitude of the oscillations in the lateral and fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of experimental biology Vol. 224; no. 22
Main Authors:	Dewolf, A H, Ivanenko, Y P, Mesquita, R M, Willems, P A
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England 15-11-2021
Subjects:	Animals Dogs Elephants Postural Balance Posture Sensorimotor and inertial delay Scaling Multisensory interactions Balance Centre of pressure
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	As the largest extant legged animals, elephants arguably face the most extreme challenge for stable standing. In this study, we investigated the displacement of the centre of pressure of 12 elephants during quiet standing. We found that the average amplitude of the oscillations in the lateral and fore-aft directions was less than 1.5 cm. Such amplitudes for postural oscillation are comparable with those of dogs and other species, suggesting that some aspects of sensorimotor postural control do not scale with size.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0022-0949 1477-9145
DOI:	10.1242/jeb.243648