Sensory substitution and balance
Poster Presentation

Achille Pasqualotto
Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (Cnam)

Aurelie (*) Fouilleul
Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (Cnam)

Eliana (*) Sampaio
Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (Cnam)

Patrice (*) Rougier
Université de Savoie

Claude (*) Liard
Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (Cnam)

     Abstract ID Number: 136
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: March 21, 2005

Abstract
Sensory information is known to play an unparalleled part in the control of upright undisturbed stance. The reduced motions of the body must be indeed detected throughout numerous receptors originating from the vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile and visual systems. However, when one of these cues becomes impaired (transitorily or permanently), some reorganisation of the control process can be observed at the central nervous system level. Along these lines, the pioneering techniques consisting to substitute one of these cues throughout the remaining systems constitutes a real and promising line of investigation.
These feedback techniques have in common to allow the subjects to get spatio-temporal information from various origins through another sensory canal.
In the present study, our aim was to compare several feedback techniques including visual, auditive, and tactile (through a monitor screen, a sound device and the tongue display unit, respectively) in both healthy and impaired (blind) individuals. The information given was relative to the centre-of-pressure displacements (indicative of the body motions) measured through a force platform on which the subjects stand. It visual feedback is a well documented technique in both healthy and disabled subjects, the effects induced by furnishing additional information through tactile and auditory systems remained to be explored.