Neuroscience Program and Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, Universidade de São Paulo, EPUSP, PTC, Avenida Professor Luciano Gualberto, Travessa 3, n.158, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Med Hypotheses. 2011 Aug;77(2):301-4. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2011.04.040. Epub 2011 May 23.
Diminished balance ability poses a serious health risk due to the increased likelihood of falling, and impaired postural stability is significantly associated with blindness and poor vision. Noise stimulation (by improving the detection of sub-threshold somatosensory information) and tactile supplementation (i.e., additional haptic information provided by an external contact surface) have been shown to improve the performance of the postural control system. Moreover, vibratory noise added to the source of tactile supplementation (e.g., applied to a surface that the fingertip touches) has been shown to enhance balance stability more effectively than tactile supplementation alone. In view of the above findings, in addition to the well established consensus that blind subjects show superior abilities in the use of tactile information, we hypothesized that blind subjects may take extra benefits from the vibratory noise added to the tactile supplementation and hence show greater improvements in postural stability than those observed for sighted subjects. If confirmed, this hypothesis may lay the foundation for the development of noise-based assistive devices (e.g., canes, walking sticks) for improving somatosensation and hence prevent falls in blind individuals.
平衡能力下降会增加跌倒的风险，从而对健康造成严重威胁，而姿势稳定性受损与失明和视力差显著相关。有研究表明，噪声刺激（通过提高对亚阈值体感信息的检测）和触觉补充（即通过外部接触面提供额外的触觉信息）可以改善姿势控制系统的性能。此外，与触觉补充源（例如施加到手触及的表面）一起添加的振动噪声比单独的触觉补充更有效地增强平衡稳定性。鉴于上述发现，除了盲人在使用触觉信息方面表现出卓越能力的既定共识外，我们假设盲人可能会从添加到触觉补充中的振动噪声中获得额外的益处，因此在姿势稳定性方面的改善程度可能大于在视力正常的人群中观察到的程度。如果得到证实，这一假设可能为基于噪声的辅助设备（例如，盲杖、拐杖）的开发奠定基础，这些设备可以改善感觉，从而防止盲人跌倒。
