Author(s): SCHEDLER, S., MUEHLBAUER, T., Institution: UNIVERSITY OF DUISBURG-ESSEN, Country: GERMANY, Abstract-ID: 366

INTRODUCTION:
Due to the development of relatively low-cost but high-tech head mounted displays (HMDs), virtual reality (VR) is used more and more frequently in postural control research. However, it remains unclear whether balance performance is affected by for instance the physical characteristics of the hardware used or the application of a virtual visual stimulus. Further, balance performance has been shown to be age-dependent, especially in youth [1]. Therefore, VR may have different effects on balance performance in youth compared to young adults. Thus, the present systematic review aimed to analyse the influence of VR on balance performance in healthy children, adolescents, and young adults.
METHODS:
A systematic literature search was performed in the databases of PubMed, Web of Science, and SPORTDiscus. Inclusion criteria were as follows: (i) healthy, young (age ≤ 30 years) participants, (ii) at least one measure of balance had to be tested in the real as well as in a virtual environment, and (iii) the virtual scene was applied using a HMD. To minimize the effect of different VR-scenarios, only studies using a VR environment which resembled the respective real-world condition were included.
RESULTS:
A total of nine studies with 171 young adults (19–30 years, 50% females) met the inclusion criteria. Five studies investigated static balance, three studies analysed dynamic balance and one study examined static and dynamic balance performance. Regarding static balance, three studies did not find differences between performances in the real and the virtual scenario, whereas three studies found worse performances under virtual and more challenging (e.g., reduced base of support) conditions. Concerning dynamic balance, three studies reported declined performances in VR compared to the real condition, while one study did not find significant performance differences. No studies investigating children or adolescents met the inclusion criteria.
CONCLUSION:
In healthy young adults, declined balance performances under demanding (e.g., reduced base of support) static and dynamic conditions indicate that VR has detrimental effects on postural control, especially when task difficulty increases. Consequently, results from balance assessments in the real world should not be equated with those obtained in VR, even if the VR-scenario resembles the real world surrounding. Future studies should investigate whether balance training difficulty in VR has to be reduced compared to real world training due to decreased balance performance in VR. Additionally, there is a high need for studies on the influence of VR on balance performance in healthy children and adolescents as no such studies met the predefined inclusion criteria.

Reference
[1] Granacher U. et al., Gerontology, 2011.

Contact
Email: simon.schedler@uni-due.de