Postural Responses in Trauma-Experienced Individuals

Background: Balance and proprioception are essential elements in postural control and injury prevention. Proprioception, the body's sense of position and movement, is closely tied to balance, which depends on input from the visual, vestibular, and somatosensory systems. This article explores the link between trauma experiences and proprioceptive dysfunction, emphasizing how heightened muscle tone, dissociation, and altered sensory processing contribute to balance issues and the risk of injury. Method: The study included 48 participants, aged 18-25. Participants completed the Emotional Regulation Scale, Dissociative Experiences Scale II, and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, after which they had to stand on a BTrackS Balance Plate while being exposed to images that are designed to evoke emotions from the OASIS image set. The balance plate software calculated outcomes of the participants' postural sway (total sway, sway area, root mean square (RMS) to the mediolateral (ML) and anteroposterior (AP) way, and excursion to ML and AP ways). Results: Dissociative experience shows significant correlation with RMS ML when viewing positive pictures (rτ = 0.207, p = 0.045) and when viewing negative pictures again; scores with RMS ML (rτ = 0.204, p = 0.049) but also with RMS AP (rτ = 0.209, p = 0.042) and with Excursion ML (rτ = 0.200, p = 0.049) were significant. Experiences of physical abuse affected certain indicators of postural sway when viewing positive images compared to participants with no such experience (sway area: U = 374.50, p = 0.027; RMS AP: U = 383.50, p = 0.016; Excursion ML: U = 397.00, p = 0.007). Similarly, physical neglect affected postural sway during viewing of negative images (sway area: U = 366.50, p = 0.003; RMS AP: U = 371.00, p = 0.004; Excursion ML: U = 347.00, p = 0.034; and Excursion AP: U = 353.00, p = 0.010). Conclusions: The study highlights that dissociation disrupts balance in trauma survivors, especially under emotional stress which highlights the potential for motor-based treatments.