Assessment via the Oculus of Visual "Weighting" and "Reweighting" in Young Adults

Substantial advances in virtual reality technology open an exciting window toward better understanding of subdomains of balance control. Here, we studied whether a portable virtual reality headset can be used to test sensory integration for balance. Twenty young adults stood on a both-sides-up ball or floor. Moving spheres were projected from an Oculus Development Kit 2 at various amplitudes and frequencies. Participants' gains indicated visual "weighting" when standing on both-sides-up but not on the floor and "reweighting" with increased visual amplitude. Intraclass correlations showed acceptable to good reliability for all floor conditions and for some of the both-sides-up conditions when we repeated the protocol a week later. Future steps to further develop our paradigm into a clinical assessment of sensory integration for postural control are discussed.