title: Noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation induces a sustained improvement in body balance in elderly adults.
abstract: Vestibular dysfunction causes postural instability, which is prevalent in the elderly. We previously showed that an imperceptible level of noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation (nGVS) can improve postural stability in patients with bilateral vestibulopathy during the stimulus, presumably by enhancing vestibular information processing. In this study, we investigated the after-effects of an imperceptible long-duration nGVS on body balance in elderly adults. Thirty elderly participants underwent two nGVS sessions in a randomised order. In Session 1, participants received nGVS for 30 min twice with a 4-h interval. In Session 2, participants received nGVS for 3 h. Two-legged stance tasks were performed with eyes closed while participants stood on a foam rubber surface, with and without nGVS, and parameters related to postural stability were measured using posturography. In both sessions, the postural stability was markedly improved for more than 2 h after the cessation of the stimulus and tended to decrease thereafter. The second stimulation in Session 1 caused a moderate additional improvement in body balance and promoted the sustainability of the improvement. These results suggest that nGVS can lead to a postural stability improvement in elderly adults that lasts for several hours after the cessation of the stimulus, probably via vestibular neuroplasticity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Chisato
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fujimoto
authors.affiliation: Educational Physiology Laboratory, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshiharu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Teru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kamogashira
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kinoshita
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Egami
authors.affiliation: Biostatistics Division, Clinical Research Support Center, The University of Tokyo Hospital, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Yukari
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Uemura
authors.affiliation: Educational Physiology Laboratory, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Fumiharu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Togo
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamasoba
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iwasaki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004566:Electrodes; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000502:physiology*