Abstract
It is considered that the dawn of scientific investigation into human postural mechanism dates back to the 17th century when Borelli tried to measure the gravity line in humans. Until the end of the 18th century, balance sensation was considered as something like a ghost sensation. However, in the early 19th century, Flourens (1828) clarified the function of the vestibular organs, followed by Romberg's discovery of the visual contribution to the postural control mechanism (1840). The cybernetic approach has subsequently gradually been introduced. Vierordt (1860) was the first to have had made posturographic recordings and showed that human posture is maintained by small incessant movements. As for the introduction of the postural reflex mechanism, Magnus and Sherrington's contribution was epoch-making. However Fukuda's subtle detailed observation of human posture indicated those reflexes can be observed in daily life. With the introduction of the computer, analysis of movements of the body center of gravity developed remarkably worldwide, especially after World War II. Kapteyn was the first to introduce the world standard for stabilometry in 1981 at the 6th international postulography meeting in Kyoto. Based upon this standardization, Japan has manufactured stabilometric instrumentation and from 1994, this examination was approved for coverage by the Japanese Health Insurance system. However this standardization has not been fully used in all countries. The establishment of a global standard is mandatory to enable all discussions to be on the same page, and to allow sharing important research results on stabilometry.
