Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Department of Psychology, School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2022 Apr 14;22(8):3014. doi: 10.3390/s22083014.
Vibrotactile sensory augmentation (SA) decreases postural sway during real-time use; however, limited studies have investigated the long-term effects of training with SA. This study assessed the retention effects of long-term balance training with and without vibrotactile SA among community-dwelling healthy older adults, and explored brain-related changes due to training with SA. Sixteen participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group (EG) or control group (CG), and trained in their homes for eight weeks using smart-phone balance trainers. The EG received vibrotactile SA. Balance performance was assessed before, and one week, one month, and six months after training. Functional MRI (fMRI) was recorded before and one week after training for four participants who received vestibular stimulation. Both groups demonstrated significant improvement of SOT composite and MiniBESTest scores, and increased vestibular reliance. Only the EG maintained a minimal detectable change of 8 points in SOT scores six months post-training and greater improvements than the CG in MiniBESTest scores one month post-training. The fMRI results revealed a shift from activation in the vestibular cortex pre-training to increased activity in the brainstem and cerebellum post-training. These findings showed that additional balance improvements were maintained for up to six months post-training with vibrotactile SA for community-dwelling healthy older adults.
振动触觉感觉增强 (SA) 可减少实时使用时的姿势摆动；然而，有限的研究调查了具有 SA 的训练的长期效果。本研究评估了长期平衡训练在有和没有振动触觉 SA 的情况下对社区居住的健康老年人的保留效果，并探讨了由于 SA 训练引起的与大脑相关的变化。16 名参与者被随机分配到实验组 (EG) 或对照组 (CG)，并在家中使用智能手机平衡训练器进行了八周的训练。EG 接受振动触觉 SA。在训练前、训练后一周、一个月和六个月评估平衡表现。对于接受前庭刺激的四名参与者，在训练前和训练后一周记录功能磁共振成像 (fMRI)。两组的 SOT 综合评分和 MiniBESTest 评分均显著提高，前庭依赖度增加。仅 EG 在训练后六个月保持了 SOT 评分至少 8 分的可检测变化，并且在训练后一个月的 MiniBESTest 评分中比 CG 有更大的提高。fMRI 结果显示，从训练前的前庭皮层激活转变为训练后的脑干和小脑活动增加。这些发现表明，对于社区居住的健康老年人，在具有振动触觉 SA 的情况下，额外的平衡改善可以维持长达六个月。
