TY - JOUR
T1 - Postural and Head Control Given Different Environmental Contexts
AU - Lubetzky, Anat V.
AU - Kelly, Jennifer L.
AU - Hujsak, Bryan D.
AU - Liu, Jenny
AU - Harel, Daphna
AU - Cosetti, Maura
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Zhu Wang, PhD candidate, NYU Courant Future Reality Lab and Tandon School of Engineering, for the development of the testing applications. We thank Susan Lunardi and Madison Pessel, physical therapy students at NYU, for their assistance with data collection. Funding. This research was supported in part by the Hearing Health Foundation Emerging Research Grant 2019. AL and DH were funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health National Rehabilitation Research Resource to Enhance Clinical Trials (REACT) pilot award. The sponsors had no role in the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by the Hearing Health Foundation Emerging Research Grant 2019. AL and DH were funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health National Rehabilitation Research Resource to Enhance Clinical Trials (REACT) pilot award. The sponsors had no role in the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Lubetzky, Kelly, Hujsak, Liu, Harel and Cosetti.
PY - 2021/6/3
Y1 - 2021/6/3
N2 - Virtual reality allows for testing of multisensory integration for balance using portable Head Mounted Displays (HMDs). HMDs provide head kinematics data while showing a moving scene when participants are not. 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. We tested 25 healthy adults, and a small sample of people with diverse monaural hearing (n = 7), or unilateral vestibular dysfunction (n = 7). 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 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. We found no difference between the different combinations of “low” and “high” visuals and sounds. We then combined all perturbations data into “dynamic” and compared it to the static level. 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. The majority of the vestibular group moved more than controls, particularly around the head, when the scenes, especially the city, were dynamic. Several patients with monaural hearing performed similar to controls whereas others, particularly older participants, performed worse. In conclusion, responses to sensory perturbations are magnified around the head. Significant differences in performance between environments support the importance of context in sensory integration. 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. Balance assessment and rehabilitation should be conducted in different environmental contexts.
AB - Virtual reality allows for testing of multisensory integration for balance using portable Head Mounted Displays (HMDs). HMDs provide head kinematics data while showing a moving scene when participants are not. 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. We tested 25 healthy adults, and a small sample of people with diverse monaural hearing (n = 7), or unilateral vestibular dysfunction (n = 7). 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 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. We found no difference between the different combinations of “low” and “high” visuals and sounds. We then combined all perturbations data into “dynamic” and compared it to the static level. 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. The majority of the vestibular group moved more than controls, particularly around the head, when the scenes, especially the city, were dynamic. Several patients with monaural hearing performed similar to controls whereas others, particularly older participants, performed worse. In conclusion, responses to sensory perturbations are magnified around the head. Significant differences in performance between environments support the importance of context in sensory integration. 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. Balance assessment and rehabilitation should be conducted in different environmental contexts.
KW - Head Mounted Display
KW - balance
KW - hearing loss
KW - sensory integration for postural control
KW - vestibular disorders
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85108174566&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fneur.2021.597404
DO - 10.3389/fneur.2021.597404
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85108174566
SN - 1664-2295
VL - 12
JO - Frontiers in Neurology
JF - Frontiers in Neurology
M1 - 597404
ER -