Postural behaviour responses to visual stimulation in patients with vestibular disorders

Patients with different vestibular disorders exhibit changes in postural behaviour when they receive visual stimuli, reproducing environmental stimulation. Postural control was studied using an AMTI Accusway platform, measuring the confidential ellipse (CE) and sway velocity (SV). Postural responses were recorded according to the following stimulation paradigm: i) without specific stimuli; ii) smooth pursuit with pure sinusoids of 0.2 Hz (foveal stimulation); and iii) optokinetic stimulation (retinal stimuli). Patients with central vestibular disorders (CVD), cerebellar damage and unilateral peripheral vestibular lesions (UPVL) in asymptomatic periods were studied. A group of normal subjects was studied as control. Signal processing was done with a scalogram by wavelets in order to observe the relation between time and frequency in postural control. While patients with CVD and cerebellar disease showed a significant increase in CE and SV in the three conditions of the paradigm compared to the normal group, the patients with UPVL showed no change. Wavelets processing showed that the main sway occurs in the Y axis (antero-posterior) and below at 0.4 Hz in normal subjects, while the CVD and cerebellar patients showed sway frequencies in both the X and Y axes. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.