Journal of motor control and learning最新文献

{"title":"Simulated Hearing Loss in Healthy Young Adults Does Not Change Reactive Balance Responses.","authors":"Victoria Kowalewski, Rita Patterson, Jessica Hartos, Nicoleta Bugnariu","doi":"10.5812/jmcl-167805","DOIUrl":"10.5812/jmcl-167805","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Hearing loss has been implicated in increased fall risk, particularly among older adults, due to its impact on mobility, gait speed, and postural stability. Dual-task paradigms, where individuals must simultaneously process auditory information and maintain balance control, may exacerbate these deficits. However, isolating the effects of auditory input from age-related neuromuscular and cognitive decline presents a methodological challenge.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This study aimed to assess the acute effects of simulated hearing loss on reactive balance control in healthy young adults using a dual-task paradigm.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Nineteen healthy young adults completed a dual-task protocol involving unexpected surface translations while performing the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Speech-in-Noise (BKB-SIN) test under three auditory conditions: No audio, normal hearing, and simulated hearing loss. Hearing loss was simulated using frequency-specific attenuation via Adobe Audition. Primary outcomes included BKB-SIN performance, maximum Center of Pressure to Center of Mass (COP-COM) distance during the first compensatory step, and reaction time to step initiation. Kinematic and kinetic data were collected using a motion capture system and instrumented treadmill. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to evaluate the effects of auditory and balance conditions.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Simulated hearing loss significantly impaired BKB-SIN performance, confirming increased auditory task difficulty. However, maximum COP-COM distance and reaction time were significantly affected only by perturbation level, with no significant differences across auditory conditions. No interaction effects were observed between auditory and balance conditions.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Acute simulated hearing loss did not impair reactive balance control in young adults, suggesting sufficient attentional capacity and system redundancy to compensate during dual-task conditions. These findings underscore the importance of investigating age-related auditory and cognitive decline to better understand balance impairments in older adults with hearing loss.</p>","PeriodicalId":523885,"journal":{"name":"Journal of motor control and learning","volume":"7 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13232895/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148166593","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}