Yashima Junichiro, Kusuno Miki, Sugimoto Eri, Sasaki Hitoshi
Vocational College of Osaka Judo Therapist Association, 3-10-3 Utsubohommachi, Nishi-ku, Osaka 550-0004, Japan.
Heliyon. 2021 Oct 30;7(11):e08299. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08299. eCollection 2021 Nov.
It is known that enhanced somatosensory function leads to improved balance, and somatosensory function can be enhanced by the appropriate level of mechanical, visual, or auditory noise. In this study, we tested the potential benefit of an auditory noise on balance control. We first assessed static balance by measuring 10 times the duration of standing on the toes of one leg with closed eyes. For the 18 healthy adult participants, the median standing times ranged from 2.1 to 45.6 s, and the median of the distribution was 9.9 s. From the above, the participants were divided into two groups: lower (below 10 s, n = 9) and higher (above 10 s, n = 9) balance groups. We then investigated the effect on balance control of an auditory white noise emitted at the detection threshold. Each individual performed 20 trials. The auditory noise was applied in half the trials, while the remaining trials were conducted without noise. The order of the noise and no-noise trials was quasi-random. In the lower-balance group, the median standing time significantly increased during the noise trials (10.3 s) compared with the time in the no-noise controls (5.2 s). On the other hand, noise had no significant effect in the higher-balance group, presumably because of a ceiling effect. These findings suggest that static balance in the lower-balance participants can be improved by applying a weak noise through cross-modal stochastic resonance.
已知增强的体感功能会导致平衡能力提高，并且体感功能可以通过适当水平的机械、视觉或听觉噪声得到增强。在本研究中，我们测试了听觉噪声对平衡控制的潜在益处。我们首先通过测量单腿闭眼踮脚尖站立的时长10次来评估静态平衡。对于18名健康成年参与者，站立时间中位数在2.1至45.6秒之间，分布中位数为9.9秒。基于上述情况，参与者被分为两组：低平衡组（低于10秒，n = 9）和高平衡组（高于10秒，n = 9）。然后我们研究了在检测阈值下发出的听觉白噪声对平衡控制的影响。每个个体进行20次试验。在一半的试验中施加听觉噪声，而其余试验在无噪声条件下进行。噪声和无噪声试验的顺序是准随机的。在低平衡组中，与无噪声对照试验中的时间（5.2秒）相比，噪声试验期间的站立时间中位数显著增加（10.3秒）。另一方面，噪声在高平衡组中没有显著影响，可能是由于天花板效应。这些发现表明，通过跨模态随机共振施加微弱噪声可以改善低平衡参与者的静态平衡。
