Perturbation recovery time as a valid measure of balance control in human running

Perturbation recovery time as a valid measure of balance control in human running | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Perturbation recovery time as a valid measure of balance control in human running Carlo von Diecken, Luca Braun, Bastian Anedda, Steffen Willwacher This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9201516/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Balance control during running may be critical for performance and injury prevention, but the lack of valid and interpretable metrics limits research. This study introduces perturbation recovery time (PRT) as a novel measure of running-specific balance control, defined as the time required for whole-body angular momentum (WBAM) to return to statistically defined steady-state dynamics following a perturbation. Thirty recreational runners completed treadmill trials under normal running and two artificial balance impairment conditions (restricted arm swing and weighted vest loading). Participants were exposed to pseudorandomized anterior–posterior and mediolateral perturbations of varying magnitudes. PRT was computed using a functional data analysis approach based on 95% prediction bands derived from baseline WBAM dynamics. Peak deviation (PD), peak-to-peak range (PPR) and maximum Lyapunov exponent (MLE) were calculated for comparison. Detection accuracy was defined as the proportion of runners showing larger values in impaired vs. normal conditions and in higher vs. lower perturbation intensities. PRT demonstrated the highest overall detection accuracy (80.8 ± 10.5%) compared to PPR (75.0 ± 6.0%), PD (73.0 ± 11.8%) and MLE (34.0 ± 28.1%). PRT detected balance impairment induced by restricted arm swing in 82.8% and by weighted vest in 66.7% of runners, respectively. It also showed high sensitivity to perturbation intensity (86.8%). In contrast, deviation-based WBAM metrics failed to detect impairment in the weighted vest condition and MLE showed poor discriminatory ability in all comparisons. Notably, MLE was negatively associated with PRT, suggesting that high local dynamic stability predicts reduced ability to recover from large perturbations. These findings support PRT as a valid and interpretable measure of balance control in running, potentially capturing aspects of recovery dynamics not captured by existing metrics. PRT may provide a useful tool for assessing balance control in athletic and clinical populations, although further work is needed to establish its relationship with performance and injury risk. Human locomotion perturbation recovery whole-body angular momentum balance metrics Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9201516","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":610751437,"identity":"5c33977d-89da-4705-ae9b-0918348c7eac","order_by":0,"name":"Carlo von Diecken","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3286-3806","institution":"Institute of Biomechanics and Orthopaedics, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Carlo","middleName":"","lastName":"von Diecken","suffix":""},{"id":610761843,"identity":"21acffa4-9597-49e9-9860-d0e86d0f3be7","order_by":1,"name":"Luca 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This study introduces perturbation recovery time (PRT) as a novel measure of running-specific balance control, defined as the time required for whole-body angular momentum (WBAM) to return to statistically defined steady-state dynamics following a perturbation. Thirty recreational runners completed treadmill trials under normal running and two artificial balance impairment conditions (restricted arm swing and weighted vest loading). Participants were exposed to pseudorandomized anterior\u0026ndash;posterior and mediolateral perturbations of varying magnitudes. PRT was computed using a functional data analysis approach based on 95% prediction bands derived from baseline WBAM dynamics. Peak deviation (PD), peak-to-peak range (PPR) and maximum Lyapunov exponent (MLE) were calculated for comparison. Detection accuracy was defined as the proportion of runners showing larger values in impaired vs. normal conditions and in higher vs. lower perturbation intensities. PRT demonstrated the highest overall detection accuracy (80.8\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;10.5%) compared to PPR (75.0\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;6.0%), PD (73.0\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;11.8%) and MLE (34.0\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;28.1%). PRT detected balance impairment induced by restricted arm swing in 82.8% and by weighted vest in 66.7% of runners, respectively. It also showed high sensitivity to perturbation intensity (86.8%). In contrast, deviation-based WBAM metrics failed to detect impairment in the weighted vest condition and MLE showed poor discriminatory ability in all comparisons. Notably, MLE was negatively associated with PRT, suggesting that high local dynamic stability predicts reduced ability to recover from large perturbations. These findings support PRT as a valid and interpretable measure of balance control in running, potentially capturing aspects of recovery dynamics not captured by existing metrics. PRT may provide a useful tool for assessing balance control in athletic and clinical populations, although further work is needed to establish its relationship with performance and injury risk.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Perturbation recovery time as a valid measure of balance control in human running","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-03-24 10:07:48","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9201516/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"d0af1ce2-39aa-4ddc-9b97-af3ab42c03f5","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 24th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-03-24T10:07:48+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-03-24 10:07:48","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9201516","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9201516","identity":"rs-9201516","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}