Evaluation of an electronic video game for improvement of balance

Abstract

Virtual environments have been investigated for fitness and medical rehabilitation. In this study, the Sony EyeToy® and PlayStation 2® were used with the AntiGrav™ game to evaluate their potential for improving postural balance. The game required lateral head, body, and arm movements. The performance on balance tests of subjects who trained for 3 weeks with this game was compared to the performance of controls who were not trained. Training subjects showed improvement for two of the three tests (each testing a different facet of balance), suggesting specificity of training, while control subjects did not show significant improvement on any test. Simulator sickness questionnaire results showed a variety of mild symptoms, which decreased over the training sessions. Motor learning analysis of the game scores showed that mastery had been achieved on the easier level in the game, but not on the second level of difficulty. This reflects the potential for continued learning and training through advanced levels within a game. A model parameter using the time constants of game score improvement was developed, which could be used to quantify the difficulty for any video game design. The results suggest that this video game could be used for some aspects of balance training.