How Virtual Reality is Impacting Balance: An Examination of Postural Stability

The Effect of Different Visual Stimuli Provided by Virtual Reality on Postural Control in Healthy Subject

There are several studies examining the effects of different sensory stimuli on balance in healthy young people. Our study will especially explain how the same environment will affect postural control, when projected into VR environment. In this way, we aim to contribute to the literature and virtual reality programs used in rehabilitation.

Thanks to the development of technology in recent years, virtual reality applications have started to be included in physiotherapy. Virtual reality is used in both clinical and academic studies for the purpose of training rather than evaluation. In the literature, it has been emphasized that traditional balance training does not have any superiority over virtual reality and virtual reality training can be used as a practical alternative in the long term (12,13). Furthermore, the feedback provided by virtual reality games is effective in the patient's participation in the treatment. Different visual stimuli created using virtual reality can affect postural control in different ways (14). In addition, there is no study comparing the effect of real image and virtual reality image on postural control by transferring the current environment to virtual reality. The aim of this study is to reflect the real environment to virtual reality; To explain how postural control is affected by eyes closed, eyes open and in virtual reality. Two hypotheses were determined in this study.

H0: There is no significant difference between the real environment and three virtual environment on postural control in healhty subject.

H1: There is a significant difference between the real environment and three virtual environment on postural control in healthy subject.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Being between the ages of 18-30
• The absence of any medical diagnosis
• Having visual acurity or corrected visual acurity
• Being volunteer

Exclusion Criteria:

• The presence of any medical diagnosis
• The presence of any neurologic symptoms
• The presence of any sensory problems
• The presence of any balance problems
• The presence of any vestibular problems
• Previous ortophedic surgery
• The use of an additional assistive device