Foundational Study on the Evaluation of Sensory Reweighting in Human Standing Control

With today's trend of demographic aging in Japan, falls among the elderly are becoming more common. As this gives rise to a need for effective measures for fall prevention, the authors previously proposed a technique for fall risk assessment. This approach involves the use of somatosensory stimulation to induce staggering and allow evaluation of standing function based on stimulation differences. However, further development is required, as human standing involves a process known as sensory reweighting, in which each of three sensory systems (visual, vestibular and somatosensory) is weighted to create equilibrium. Here the authors propose a new approach for evaluation of standing function in which the capacity and weight change in relation to each sensory system are assessed with stimulation of these systems.