Postural Control under Cognitive Load: Evidence of Increased Automaticity Revealed by Center-of-Pressure and Head Kinematics.

How postural responses change with sensory perturbations while also performing a cognitive task is still debatable. This study investigated this question via comprehensive assessment of postural sway, head kinematics and their coupling. Twenty-three healthy young adults stood in tandem with eyes open or wearing the HTC Vive Head-Mounted Display (HMD) with a static or dynamic (i.

Factors associated with dynamic balance in people with Persistent Postural Perceptual Dizziness (PPPD): a cross-sectional study using a virtual-reality Four Square Step Test.

Background: Persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) is a condition characterized by chronic subjective dizziness and exacerbated by visual stimuli or upright movement. Typical balance tests do not replicate the environments known to increase symptoms in people with PPPD-crowded places with moving objects. Using a virtual reality system, we quantified dynamic balance in people with PPPD and healthy controls in diverse visual conditions.

People with persistent postural-perceptual dizziness demonstrate altered postural strategies in complex visual and cognitive environments.

Background: People with PPPD report imbalance, increase in symptoms and impaired function within complex visual environments, but understanding of the mechanism for these behaviors is still lacking.

Objective: To investigate postural control in PPPD we compared changes in center of pressure (COP) and head kinematics of people with PPPD (N = 22) and healthy controls (N = 20) in response to different combinations of visual and cognitive perturbations during a challenging balance task.

Methods: Participants stood in a tandem position.