Integrative concept · SBNFA™

Continuous postural regulation

Continuous adjustments of balance, muscle tone and load distribution during a posture or a movement.

Scientific basis

Postural control integrates sensory information and motor responses to maintain or change orientation and balance. This control can also be studied in the seated position, notably from displacements of the trunk's center of pressure. The cited studies do not define the expression "continuous postural regulation."

Blue Portance / SBNFA™ reading

Blue Portance uses "continuous postural regulation" to bring together the sensorimotor processes of postural control and their biomechanical expression: adjustments of balance and muscle tone, variation of support points and stress redistribution. It is the continuous process through which these functions interact over time, not an additional isolated function or a state of immobility.

Contribution to the analysis of sitting

In the seated position, the analysis looks at how a person stabilizes and then adapts their balance according to the task, the support points and the adjustments available. When they serve functional adjustments, micro-movements can contribute to this regulation; their mere presence is not enough to establish the quality of the regulation.

Not to be confused with

Postural control, the nervous system function that provides its scientific framework: continuous postural regulation is the SBNFA™ reading of continuous adjustments in real situations; postural adaptability, the functional capacity to adjust one's bodily organization; immobility, or an autonomous postural function added to the other SBNFA™ functions: continuous postural regulation is neither of these.

Sources and scope

The sources describe aspects of postural control. Bringing them together under this Blue Portance term does not constitute external validation of SBNFA™.