The development of a new vestibular rehabilitation using virtual reality

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25462644
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Otorhinolaryngology
• Research Institution: The University of Tokushima
• Principal Investigator: TAKEDA Noriaki 徳島大学, 大学院医歯薬学研究部, 教授 (30206982)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KITAHARA Tadashi 奈良県立医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (30343255) ; ABE Koji 徳島大学, 大学院医歯薬学研究部, 准教授 (20346589)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: バーチャルリアリティー / 仮想現 / 視覚と前庭・体性感覚不一致 / 姿勢制御 / 視覚依存性 / 運動パフォーマンス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the present study, an attempt was made to develop a new vestibular rehabilitation for patients with vestibular diseases using virtual reality (VR) technology. For this purpose, we developed software to create the VR world with time lags between visual scene and head/body motion to induce visual-vestibulosomatosensory conflict. All findings in the present study suggest that vestibular rehabilitation to adapt repeated visual-vestibulosomatosensory conflict in the VR world decreases the contribution of visual inputs to posture control with reweighing somatosensory inputs to improve postural control and motor performance in patients with vestibular diseases. Therefore, VR can be used as a new vestibular rehabilitation tool for the treatment of dizzy patients. But, during the adaptation in the VR world, falling due to postural instability and motion sickness may be induced. Appropriate preventive measures are needed in the vestibular rehabilitation with VR.

Free Research Field

耳鼻咽喉科学