Effects of a Passive Back-Support Exosuit on Postural Control and Cognitive Performance During a Fatigue-Inducing Posture Maintenance Task

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of passive back-support exosuit on postural control and cognitive performance during a fatigue-inducing posture maintenance task. Background: Wearable support systems (exoskeletons/exosuits) reduce physical demands but may also influence postural control and cognitive performance by reducing muscular fatigue. Method: Eighteen participants visited on two different days to test an exosuit system and performed dual-task cognitive assessments based on human information processing (information acquisition, information integration, and action implementation) while maintaining a 35 degrees trunk flexion posture for 16 minutes. Center-of-pressure (CoP), cognitive performance, and perceived workload were recorded, while erector spinae muscle activity was captured to quantify muscle fatigue. Results: The exosuit was effective in reducing erector spinae muscle fatigue during the static posture maintenance task (61% less in Delta median frequency: -9.5 Hz (EXO-Off) versus -3.7 Hz (EXO-On)). The fatigue-inducing task increased CoP velocity as a function of time (29% greater: 9.3 mm/sec (pre) versus 12.0 mm/sec (post)), and exosuit use decreased CoP velocity (23% less: 12.1 mm/sec (EXO-Off) versus 9.4 mm/sec (EXO-On)). The exosuit was also effective at mitigating cognitive degradation, as evidenced by a higher hit-to-signal ratio (8% greater: 81.3 (EXO-Off) versus 87.9 (EXO-On)) in the information integration task and reducing perceived workload in all stages of human information processing. Conclusion: Exosuit provided benefits of postural control and information integration processing during a 16-min static posture maintenance task. Application: Torso exoskeletons/suits can have positive implications for occupations with concurrent physical and cognitive demands.