Differences in Balance with Eyes Closed, Eyes Opened and Virtual Reality Environment: A pilot-study

Abstract

Many studies have examined differences between maintaining balance with open and closed eyes. In this research Virtual Reality (VR) technology is included as a special type of visual input for creating static and dynamic virtual environments. PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper was to determine whether there is a difference between results in balance tests on Biodex Balance System (BBS) with different visual input. METHODS: Participants (n=12) in the study were young, healthy and active males with an average age of 21.25±1.14 years, body mass 82.57±8.37 kg and average body height 185.42±5.18 cm. Six balance tests were applied on BBS, four in the real world and two in the virtual environment. Duration and instability level of the BBS platform were the same for all tests. RESULTS: None of the participants finished the test in a dynamic virtual environment so that test was excluded from further statistical analysis. Factor analysis revealed two main factors (latent dimensions). The first factor is characterized by open eyes tests while extremely high projection on the second factor can only be seen in a case of a test done with the eyes closed.