Design and usability of a system for the study of head orientation.

The ability to control head orientation relative to the body is a multisensory process that mainly depends on proprioceptive, vestibular, and visual sensory systems. A system to study the sensory integration of head orientation was developed and tested. A test seat with a five-point harness was assembled to provide passive postural support.

Effects of wearing a head-mounted display during a standard clinical test of dynamic balance.

Background: The use of virtual reality (VR) in clinical settings has increased with the introduction of affordable, easy-to-use head-mounted displays (HMDs). However, some have raised concerns about the effects that HMDs have on posture and locomotion, even without the projection of a virtual scene, which may be different across ages.

Research Question: How does HMD wear impact the kinematic measures in younger and older adults?

Methods: Twelve healthy young and sixteen older adults participated in two testing conditions: 1) TUG with no HMD and 2) TUG with an HMD displaying a scene of the actual environment (TUG).

Visual dependence affects the motor behavior of older adults during the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test.

Background: Older adults show greater postural instabilities under misleading visual cues relative to younger adults. We investigated the effects of age-related visual dependence on motor performance under increased attention demands by adding a motor task and visual stimulus to the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test sub-components.

Method: We designed a cross-sectional quantitative study.

Haptic subjective vertical shows context dependence: task and vision play a role during dynamic tilt stimulation.

Perceiving one's vertical is an integral part of efficiently functioning in an environment physically polarized along that dimension. How one determines the direction of gravity is not a task left only to inertial sensors, such as the vestibular organs, rather as numerous studies have shown, this task is influenced visually and somatosensorily. In addition, there is evidence that higher order cognitive effects such as expectancies and context are critical in perception of the vertical.