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Mastoid Vibration Affects Dynamic Postural Control During Gait

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Abstract

Our objective was to investigate how manipulating sensory input through mastoid vibration (MV) could affect dynamic postural control during walking, with and without simultaneous manipulation of the visual and the somatosensory systems. We used three levels of MV (none, unilateral, and bilateral) via vibrating elements placed on the mastoid processes. We combined this with the six conditions of the Locomotor Sensory Organization Test (LSOT) paradigm to challenge the visual and somatosensory systems. We hypothesized that MV would affect both amount and temporal structure measures of sway variability during walking and that, in combination with manipulations of the visual and the somatosensory inputs, MV would augment the effects previously observed. The results confirmed that MV produced a significant increase in the amount of sway variability in both anterior–posterior and medial–lateral directions. Significant changes in the temporal structure of sway variability were only observed in the anterior–posterior direction. Bilateral MV produced larger effects than unilateral stimulation. We concluded that sensory input while walking could be affected using MV. Combining MV with manipulations of visual and somatosensory input could allow us to better understand the contributions of the sensory systems during locomotion.

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Abbreviations

MV:

Mastoid vibration

LSOT:

Locomotor Sensory Organization Test

netCOP:

NET Center of Pressure

SampEn:

Sample Entropy

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Center for Research in Human Movement Variability of the University of Nebraska Omaha and the NIH (P20GM109090 and R01AG034995). Additional support was provided by NASA EPSCoR NNX11AM06A.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomechanics Research Building, College of Education, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 6160 University Dr., Omaha, NE, 68182, USA

    Jung Hung Chien, Mukul Mukherjee & Nicholas Stergiou

  2. College of Public Health, Department of Environmental, Agricultural & Occupational Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 984355 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, 68198, USA

    Jung Hung Chien & Nicholas Stergiou

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  1. Jung Hung Chien
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Correspondence to Nicholas Stergiou.

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Associate Editor Thurmon E. Lockhart oversaw the review of this article.

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Chien, J.H., Mukherjee, M. & Stergiou, N. Mastoid Vibration Affects Dynamic Postural Control During Gait. Ann Biomed Eng 44, 2774–2784 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-016-1556-z

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