TY - JOUR
T1 - Real sounds influence postural stability in people with vestibular loss but not in healthy controls
AU - Lubetzky, Anat V.
AU - Cosetti, Maura
AU - Harel, Daphna
AU - Sherrod, Marlee
AU - Wang, Zhu
AU - Roginska, Agnieszka
AU - Kelly, Jennifer
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Lubetzky et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2025/1
Y1 - 2025/1
N2 - ObjectiveDesignSettingHuman motion laboratory.ParticipantsWhat we hear may influence postural control, particularly in people with vestibular hypofunction. Would hearing a moving subway destabilize people similarly to seeing the train move? We investigated how people with unilateral vestibular hypofunction and healthy controls incorporated broadband and real-recorded sounds with visual load for balance in an immersive contextual scene.Participants stood on foam placed on a force-platform, wore the HTC Vive headset, and observed an immersive subway environment. Each 60-second condition repeated twice: static or dynamic visual with no sound or static white noise or real recorded subway station sounds [real] played from headphones.41 healthy controls (mean age 52 years, range 22–78) and 28 participants with unilateral peripheral vestibular hypofunction (mean age 61.5, 27–82)Main outcome measuresWe collected center-of-pressure (COP, anterior-posterior, medio-lateral) from the force-platform and head (anterior-posterior, medio-lateral, pitch, yaw, roll) from the headset and quantified root mean square velocity (cm/s or rad/s)ResultsAdjusting for age, the vestibular group showed significantly more sway than controls on: COP medio-lateral (no sound or real with static or dynamic visual); COP anterior-posterior (only on dynamic visuals in the presence of either sound); head medio-lateral and anterior-posterior (all conditions), head pitch and yaw (only on dynamic visuals in the presence of either sound). A significant increase in sway with sounds was observed for the vestibular group only on dynamic visuals COP anterior-posterior and head yaw (real) and head anterior-posterior and pitch (either sound).ConclusionsThe addition of auditory stimuli, particularly contextually-accurate sounds, to a challenging, standing balance task in real-life simulation increased sway in people with vestibular hypofunction but not in healthy controls.
AB - ObjectiveDesignSettingHuman motion laboratory.ParticipantsWhat we hear may influence postural control, particularly in people with vestibular hypofunction. Would hearing a moving subway destabilize people similarly to seeing the train move? We investigated how people with unilateral vestibular hypofunction and healthy controls incorporated broadband and real-recorded sounds with visual load for balance in an immersive contextual scene.Participants stood on foam placed on a force-platform, wore the HTC Vive headset, and observed an immersive subway environment. Each 60-second condition repeated twice: static or dynamic visual with no sound or static white noise or real recorded subway station sounds [real] played from headphones.41 healthy controls (mean age 52 years, range 22–78) and 28 participants with unilateral peripheral vestibular hypofunction (mean age 61.5, 27–82)Main outcome measuresWe collected center-of-pressure (COP, anterior-posterior, medio-lateral) from the force-platform and head (anterior-posterior, medio-lateral, pitch, yaw, roll) from the headset and quantified root mean square velocity (cm/s or rad/s)ResultsAdjusting for age, the vestibular group showed significantly more sway than controls on: COP medio-lateral (no sound or real with static or dynamic visual); COP anterior-posterior (only on dynamic visuals in the presence of either sound); head medio-lateral and anterior-posterior (all conditions), head pitch and yaw (only on dynamic visuals in the presence of either sound). A significant increase in sway with sounds was observed for the vestibular group only on dynamic visuals COP anterior-posterior and head yaw (real) and head anterior-posterior and pitch (either sound).ConclusionsThe addition of auditory stimuli, particularly contextually-accurate sounds, to a challenging, standing balance task in real-life simulation increased sway in people with vestibular hypofunction but not in healthy controls.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85216312593&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0317955
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0317955
M3 - Article
C2 - 39854326
AN - SCOPUS:85216312593
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 20
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 1 January
M1 - e0317955
ER -