Abstract
Background: Vision is seen as an important factor in maintaining balance, but different visual conditions, such as following a cue or looking in one direction may increase or decrease body sway. Contradicting results in earlier studies focusing on visual control of posture show the same eye movements' conditions have a different impact on postural stability. Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the influence of different eye movements on standing balance performance. Methods: Thirty-two healthy students (age 22.8 ± 2.7 years) participated in the study. Participants were asked to follow a stationary dot and moving dots in horizontal and vertical directions in low and high frequencies while standing on a stabilometer - an unstable platform which allows movement in the frontal plane. Results: There was no impact of different saccadic speeds (p = .251, partial η2 =.044) nor different directions (p = .287, partial η2 = .039) on a postural sway in young adults. Conclusions: The postural stability is not influenced by visual stimuli in healthy young adults while maintaining balance on an unstable platform.
Highlights
Motor control relies on the utilization of sensory information to regulate our movements (Latash, 2012; Schmidt & Lee, 2011)
The common approach in most of the recent studies exploring the visual control of posture is that a stable gaze, saccades or tracking eye movements are used to understand the impact of different visual conditions on postural stability
The results show that postural stability is not influenced by visual stimuli in healthy young adults while maintaining balance on an unstable platform
Summary
Motor control relies on the utilization of sensory information to regulate our movements (Latash, 2012; Schmidt & Lee, 2011). The common approach in most of the recent studies exploring the visual control of posture is that a stable gaze (fixation), saccades or tracking (smoothpursuit) eye movements are used to understand the impact of different visual conditions on postural stability. While Kim et al (2016) analyzed postural stability in three directions of smooth-pursuit conditions at three different speeds during stance on a flat surface, in Thomas, Bampouras, Donovan, and Dewhurst (2016) participants were balancing on a force platform under fixation, saccadic and smooth-pursuit visual conditions with a combination of fixed, absent and oscillating visual backgrounds. Vision is seen as an important factor in maintaining balance, but different visual conditions, such as following a cue or looking in one direction may increase or decrease body sway. Conclusions: The postural stability is not influenced by visual stimuli in healthy young adults while maintaining balance on an unstable platform
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