Environmental contexts portable#

An inability to reweight sensory information may lead to loss of balance with environmental changes, e.g., darkness, rapidly moving vehicles (due to visual dependence), or slippery surfaces (due to somatosensory dependence) ( 2, 4). Healthy individuals are able to maintain their balance with their eyes closed, for example, because they will rely on other senses (e.g., vestibular, somatosensory) for postural control ( 2, 3). The ability to adapt to changes in the sensory environment is considered critical for balance ( 1). Balance assessment and rehabilitation should be conducted in different environmental contexts.

Future studies should further investigate the sensitivity of head kinematics to diagnose vestibular disorders and the implications of aging with hearing loss to postural control.

Significant differences in performance between environments support the importance of context in sensory integration. In conclusion, responses to sensory perturbations are magnified around the head. Several patients with monaural hearing performed similar to controls whereas others, particularly older participants, performed worse. The majority of the vestibular group moved more than controls, particularly around the head, when the scenes, especially the city, were dynamic. The increase in path between “static” and “dynamic” was significantly larger in the city environment for: Postural sway ML, Head ML, AP, pitch and roll. We then combined all perturbations data into “dynamic” and compared it to the static level. We found no difference between the different combinations of “low” and “high” visuals and sounds. We quantified medio-lateral (ML) and anterior-posterior (AP) postural sway path from the center-of-pressure data and ML, AP, pitch, yaw and roll head path from the headset. Participants stood naturally on a stable force-plate and looked at 2 environments via the Oculus Rift (abstract “stars ” busy “street”) with 3 visual and auditory levels (static, “low,” “high”). We tested 25 healthy adults, and a small sample of people with diverse monaural hearing ( n = 7), or unilateral vestibular dysfunction ( n = 7). Are HMDs useful to investigate postural control? We used an HMD to investigate postural sway and head kinematics changes in response to auditory and visual perturbations and whether this response varies by context. HMDs provide head kinematics data while showing a moving scene when participants are not.

Environmental contexts portable#

Virtual reality allows for testing of multisensory integration for balance using portable Head Mounted Displays (HMDs).

4Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States.

3Department of Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities, Steinhardt School of Culture Education and Human Development, New York University, New York, NY, United States.

2Vestibular Rehabilitation, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States.

1Department of Physical Therapy, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, New York, NY, United States.

Hujsak 2, Jenny Liu 3, Daphna Harel 3 and Maura Cosetti 4