Is reintegration of ankle proprioception information different from vestibular information in balance control?

Abstract

Introduction During balance control, proprioceptive, vestibular and visual afferences are continuously reweighted. To assess the role of a sensory system, it is common to induce sensory illusions and measure the effect on body sway. The objective was to assess sensory reintegration during and after the stimulation of one sensory system (single condition - SS) or successive stimulation of different senses (mix condition - MX). In SS, ankle proprioception or vestibular signal was altered. In MX, VIB (EVS) was followed by EVS (VIB). Material and methods Participants stood on a force platform with eyes closed, head turned at ∼90° and tilted upward ∼18°, while EVS and Achilles tendon vibration induced backward body sway. The scalar distance between the center of pressure and the center of gravity (COP-COG), stabilisation time (ST), and linear impulse during and following sensory alteration were calculated. We contrasted VIB and EVS in SS, and compared SS and MX. Results: In SS, COP-COG during sensory reintegration was larger in VIB compared to EVS (P = 0.018). No difference was found during stimulation (P Discussion/conclusion Reweighting sensory information was poorer following alteration in ankle proprioception than vestibular information. Increase in ST in the MX compared to the SS revealed that the sensorimotor integration mechanisms did not benefit from successive stimulation of different sensory systems.