McNerney Kathleen M, Coad Mary Lou, Burkard Robert F
Department of Speech-Language Pathology, SUNY Buffalo State, NY.
Department of Rehabilitation Science, University at Buffalo, NY.
Am J Audiol. 2018 Dec 6;27(4):539-546. doi: 10.1044/2018_AJA-17-0067.
Healthy young controls exhibit a learning effect after undergoing repeated administrations of the sensory organization test (SOT). The primary objective of the present experiment was to determine if an SOT learning effect is present in individuals with a unilateral vestibular impairment (UVI), and if so, whether it is different from healthy controls. The secondary objective was to determine if the learning effect is dependent on the time frame of repeated SOT assessments.
Eleven individuals diagnosed with a UVI and 11 controls underwent 6 repetitions of the SOT over 2 visits (3 per visit all within 1 week). A second control group underwent 3 SOT repetitions, with each repetition separated by 1 week, to evaluate the time course of the SOT learning effect.
No statistically significant differences were found between the UVI group and the control group. In addition, the magnitude of the learning effect was found to be similar regardless of the length of time that separated the repetitions.
If the SOT is to be used as a measure of improvement, the learning effect should be exhausted (which typically occurs following the third administration) prior to the introduction of therapy. Future research should further investigate the results from those with other vestibular pathologies.
健康的年轻对照组在多次接受感觉统合测试（SOT）后会表现出学习效应。本实验的主要目的是确定单侧前庭损伤（UVI）个体中是否存在SOT学习效应，如果存在，它是否与健康对照组不同。次要目的是确定学习效应是否取决于重复SOT评估的时间框架。
11名被诊断为UVI的个体和11名对照组在2次就诊中接受了6次SOT重复测试（每次就诊3次，均在1周内完成）。另一个对照组进行了3次SOT重复测试，每次重复测试间隔1周，以评估SOT学习效应的时间进程。
UVI组和对照组之间未发现统计学上的显著差异。此外，无论重复测试之间的时间间隔长短，学习效应的大小相似。
如果将SOT用作改善的衡量指标，则在引入治疗之前应消除学习效应（通常在第三次测试后出现）。未来的研究应进一步调查其他前庭疾病患者的结果。
