The influence of the acoustic stimulus on postural stability

The purpose of this study was to assess if 65 dB and 4000 Hz stimuli affect postural stability of young normal hearing people. Methods: Posturography examinations belong to clinical tests which evaluate the motor skills. Posturography can be divided into static posturography and dynamic posturography. In both, static posturography and dynamic posturography, patient stays on the platform with opened and closed eyes, but in the case of dynamic one, platform is unstable. In this study the Multitest Equilibre platform produced by FRAMIRAL was used. Patients took part in tests with opened and closed eyes, on stable and unstable platform. Additionally patients were exposed to 65 dB and 4000 Hz acoustic stimuli. The sound pressure level, and frequency was belonging to the best audibly frequency range. Results: Parameters such as velocity and surface were examined. The difference between velocity measured with acoustic stimuli and without acoustic stimuli was observed. On the other hand there was no difference in surface results. Conclusions: The statistically significant difference between velocity of patients center of gravity movements, measured on unstable platform, in the presence of 4000 Hz, 65 dB acoustic stimulus and without additional disturbances was observed.