Effects of the Dominant or Non-dominant Eye Blocking on Balance and Gait in Healthy Individuals

Abstract

Vision is an essential element for maintaining the balance in the standing position or for walking. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of dominant or non-dominant eye blocking on gait and balance. In 17 healthy individuals, static balance and gait function were measured when the dominant or non-dominant eye were blocked. Static balance was measured by the Wii balance board and the Balancia software program. We also measured gait function (spatio-temporal variables) and foot lateral deviations. In the present results, the path length, path velocity, and path area were significantly decreased during blocking dominant on static balance function (p<0.05). There were no significant differences on all gait parameters except velocity during blocking the non-dominant or dominant eye. We could confirm that the use of monocular with non-dominant eye can help improve static balance ability, but it is meaningless except for velocity during gait with monocular.