A basic study of balance training by the use of auditory feedback system

本研究的目的是评估不同年龄段的健康成年人身体摆动、脚趾压力、触觉和听觉刺激之间的关系。用于评估站立平衡的仪器是稳定器。使用F-Scan触觉传感器系统测量脚趾压力。结果表明，青年组和老年组的拇指触觉存在显著差异，新反馈系统产生的听觉刺激(白噪声)对身体侧向摆动的影响大于对前后摆动的影响。对脚趾压力的分析表明，所有受试者都使用左脚而不是右脚来保持平衡。此外，老年人群有主要靠右脚跟稳定的倾向。然而，年轻群体主要靠右脚趾稳定。结果表明，老年人可能比年轻人更需要适当的触觉和听觉刺激作为反馈系统。结果还表明，触觉减少、视觉信息丧失、听觉输入改变和脚趾压力减弱都是与姿势稳定性相关的重要因素。

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships between body sway, toe pressure, tactile sensation, and auditory stimulus in healthy adults of different ages. The instrument used for evaluation of standing balance was a stabilometer. The toe pressure was measured using the F-scan Tactile Sensor System. The results showed that there were significant differences between the young and elderly groups in the tactile sense of the great toe.The auditory stimulus (a white-noise sound) produced by the new feedback system should influenced more the lateral body sway than the anterior-posterior body sway. The analysis of toe pressure indicated that all subjects used more their left feet than their right feet to maintain balance. Moreover, the elderly group have the tendency that they mainly stabilized by their right heels. However, the young group mainly stabilized by their right toes. The results suggest that the elderly may need more the appropriate stimuli of tactile and auditory sense as a feedback system than the young may. The results also indicate that the reduced tactile sense, deprivation of visual information, altered auditory input, and toe pressure weakness are all important factors associated with postural stability.