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Abstract
It has long been suggested that sound plays a role in the postural control process. Few studies however have explored sound and posture interactions. The present paper focuses on the specific impact of audition on posture, seeking to determine the attributes of sound that may be useful for postural purposes. We investigated the postural sway of young, healthy blindfolded subjects in two experiments involving different static auditory environments. In the first experiment, we compared effect on sway in a simple environment built from three static sound sources in two different rooms: a normal vs. an anechoic room. In the second experiment, the same auditory environment was enriched in various ways, including the ambisonics synthesis of a immersive environment, and subjects stood on two different surfaces: a foam vs. a normal surface. The results of both experiments suggest that the spatial cues provided by sound can be used to improve postural stability. The richer the auditory environment, the better this stabilization. We interpret these results by invoking the “spatial hearing map” theory: listeners build their own mental representation of their surrounding environment, which provides them with spatial landmarks that help them to better stabilize.
Highlights
Human postural control is a complex process involving multisensory integration
The aim of this paper is to further explore how the auditory system is involved into the postural control process, and to better understand the role of the sound spatial cues in this process
We explore further how spatial auditory information is integrated into postural control, assuming that the postural sway of subjects depends on the quantity of spatial auditory information available and the nature of the sound sources
Summary
Human postural control is a complex process involving multisensory integration. The aim of this paper is to further explore how the auditory system is involved into the postural control process, and to better understand the role of the sound spatial cues in this process. In an early study by Era and Heikkinen addressing the role of audition in postural control (Era and Heikkinen, 1985), the postural sway of young adults who had suffered hearing loss through exposure to noise at work was shown to be more pronounced than that of their unexposed peers. Several subsequent studies on various populations confirmed that lack of hearing (partial or total) was detrimental to postural control [e.g., in workers (Kilburn et al, 1992), in the elderly (Rumalla et al, 2015) and in congenitally deaf children (Suarez et al, 2007) or adults (Mangiore, 2012)]
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