Cargando…
Balance in Virtual Reality: Effect of Age and Bilateral Vestibular Loss
BACKGROUND: Quantitative balance measurement is used in clinical practice to prevent falls. The conditions of the test were limited to eyes open, eyes closed, and sway-referenced vision. We developed a new visual perturbation to challenge balance using virtual reality (VR), measuring postural stabil...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2017
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5247457/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28163693 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2017.00005 |
_version_ | 1782497090695331840 |
---|---|
author | Chiarovano, Elodie Wang, Wei Rogers, Stephen J. MacDougall, Hamish G. Curthoys, Ian S. de Waele, Catherine |
author_facet | Chiarovano, Elodie Wang, Wei Rogers, Stephen J. MacDougall, Hamish G. Curthoys, Ian S. de Waele, Catherine |
author_sort | Chiarovano, Elodie |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Quantitative balance measurement is used in clinical practice to prevent falls. The conditions of the test were limited to eyes open, eyes closed, and sway-referenced vision. We developed a new visual perturbation to challenge balance using virtual reality (VR), measuring postural stability by a Wii Balance Board (WBB). METHODS: In this study, we recorded balance performance of 116 healthy subjects and of 10 bilateral vestibular loss patients using VR to assess the effect of age and the effect of total loss of vestibular function. We used several conditions: eyes open (normal visual inputs), eyes closed (no visual inputs), stable visual world (vision referenced), and perturbed visual world (visual perturbation) at different amplitudes of perturbation. Balance under these visual conditions was assessed on the WBB (stable support surface) and on the WBB plus foam rubber (unstable support surface). RESULTS: In healthy subjects, we found that the percentage of falls increased with age and with the amplitude of perturbation for both conditions: WBB or WBB + foam. Moreover, we can define a threshold for falls in each age group as the amplitude of perturbation which induced falls. For bilateral vestibular loss patients, on the WBB + foam, all of them failed with eyes closed and with perturbed visual world even at the minimal amplitude of perturbation. Finally, we observed that stable visual world induced fewer falls than eyes closed whatever the subject’s group (healthy or bilateral vestibular loss) and whatever the age decade. CONCLUSION: VR allowed us to develop a useful new tool with a wide range of visual perturbations. Rather than only two levels of visual condition (eyes open and eyes closed), the VR stimulus can be continuously adjusted to produce a visual perturbation powerful enough to induce falls even in young healthy subjects and which has allowed us to determine a threshold for falls. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5247457 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-52474572017-02-03 Balance in Virtual Reality: Effect of Age and Bilateral Vestibular Loss Chiarovano, Elodie Wang, Wei Rogers, Stephen J. MacDougall, Hamish G. Curthoys, Ian S. de Waele, Catherine Front Neurol Neuroscience BACKGROUND: Quantitative balance measurement is used in clinical practice to prevent falls. The conditions of the test were limited to eyes open, eyes closed, and sway-referenced vision. We developed a new visual perturbation to challenge balance using virtual reality (VR), measuring postural stability by a Wii Balance Board (WBB). METHODS: In this study, we recorded balance performance of 116 healthy subjects and of 10 bilateral vestibular loss patients using VR to assess the effect of age and the effect of total loss of vestibular function. We used several conditions: eyes open (normal visual inputs), eyes closed (no visual inputs), stable visual world (vision referenced), and perturbed visual world (visual perturbation) at different amplitudes of perturbation. Balance under these visual conditions was assessed on the WBB (stable support surface) and on the WBB plus foam rubber (unstable support surface). RESULTS: In healthy subjects, we found that the percentage of falls increased with age and with the amplitude of perturbation for both conditions: WBB or WBB + foam. Moreover, we can define a threshold for falls in each age group as the amplitude of perturbation which induced falls. For bilateral vestibular loss patients, on the WBB + foam, all of them failed with eyes closed and with perturbed visual world even at the minimal amplitude of perturbation. Finally, we observed that stable visual world induced fewer falls than eyes closed whatever the subject’s group (healthy or bilateral vestibular loss) and whatever the age decade. CONCLUSION: VR allowed us to develop a useful new tool with a wide range of visual perturbations. Rather than only two levels of visual condition (eyes open and eyes closed), the VR stimulus can be continuously adjusted to produce a visual perturbation powerful enough to induce falls even in young healthy subjects and which has allowed us to determine a threshold for falls. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-01-20 /pmc/articles/PMC5247457/ /pubmed/28163693 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2017.00005 Text en Copyright © 2017 Chiarovano, Wang, Rogers, MacDougall, Curthoys and de Waele. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Neuroscience Chiarovano, Elodie Wang, Wei Rogers, Stephen J. MacDougall, Hamish G. Curthoys, Ian S. de Waele, Catherine Balance in Virtual Reality: Effect of Age and Bilateral Vestibular Loss |
title | Balance in Virtual Reality: Effect of Age and Bilateral Vestibular Loss |
title_full | Balance in Virtual Reality: Effect of Age and Bilateral Vestibular Loss |
title_fullStr | Balance in Virtual Reality: Effect of Age and Bilateral Vestibular Loss |
title_full_unstemmed | Balance in Virtual Reality: Effect of Age and Bilateral Vestibular Loss |
title_short | Balance in Virtual Reality: Effect of Age and Bilateral Vestibular Loss |
title_sort | balance in virtual reality: effect of age and bilateral vestibular loss |
topic | Neuroscience |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5247457/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28163693 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2017.00005 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT chiarovanoelodie balanceinvirtualrealityeffectofageandbilateralvestibularloss AT wangwei balanceinvirtualrealityeffectofageandbilateralvestibularloss AT rogersstephenj balanceinvirtualrealityeffectofageandbilateralvestibularloss AT macdougallhamishg balanceinvirtualrealityeffectofageandbilateralvestibularloss AT curthoysians balanceinvirtualrealityeffectofageandbilateralvestibularloss AT dewaelecatherine balanceinvirtualrealityeffectofageandbilateralvestibularloss |