Things may not always be how they appear.

What can you notice about all these kids that you may not have noticed before?

Look north for a moment. What do you notice about all the kids with a head tilt? We are talking about girl in pink on viewers left, gentleman in red 2nd from left, blue shirt all the way on viewers right. Notice how the posture of the 2 on the left are very similar and the one on the right is the mirror image?

What can be said about the rest of their body posture? Can you see how the body is trying to move so that the eyes can be parallel with the horizon? This is part of a vestibulo cerebellar reflex. The system is designed to try and keep the eyes parallel with the horizon. The semicircular canals (see above), located medial to your ears, sense linear and angular acceleration. These structures feed head position information to the cerebellum which then forwards it to the vestibular nucleii, which sends messages down the vestibulo spinal tract and up the medial longitudinal fasiculus to adjust the body position and eye position accordingly. 

Can you see how when we add another parameter to the postural position (in this case, running; yes, it may be staged, but the reflex persists despite that. Neurology does not lie), that there can be a compensation that you may not have expected?

What if one of these 3 (or all three) kids had neck pain. Can you see how it may not be coming from the neck. What do you think happens with cortical (re)mapping over many years of a compensation like this? Hmmm. Makes you think, eh?

Ivo and Shawn. The Gait Guys. Taking you a little further down the rabbit hole, each and every post.