Effects of repeated snowboard exercise in virtual reality with time lags of visual scene behind body rotation on head stability and subjective slalom run performance in healthy young subjects

Abstract

Conclusion: After repeated snowboard exercises in the virtual reality (VR) world with increasing time lags in trials 3–8, it is suggested that the adaptation to repeated visual-vestibulosomatosensory conflict in the VR world improved dynamic posture control and motor performance in the real world without the development of motion sickness.Objectives: The VR technology was used and the effects of repeated snowboard exercise examined in the VR world with time lags between visual scene and body rotation on the head stability and slalom run performance during exercise in healthy subjects.Methods: Forty-two healthy young subjects participated in the study. After trials 1 and 2 of snowboard exercise in the VR world without time lag, trials 3–8 were conducted with 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6 s time lags of the visual scene that the computer creates behind board rotation, respectively. Finally, trial 9 was conducted without time lag. Head linear accelerations and subjective slalom run performance were evaluated.Results: The standard deviations of head linear accelerations in inter-aural direction were significantly increased in trial 8, with a time lag of 0.6 s, but significantly decreased in trial 9 without a time lag, compared with those in trial 2 without a time lag. The subjective scores of slalom run performance were significantly decreased in trial 8, with a time lag of 0.6 s, but significantly increased in trial 9 without a time lag, compared with those in trial 2 without a time lag. Motion sickness was not induced in any subjects.

Keywords:

• Motor performance
• posture control
• virtual exercise
• visual-vestibulosomatosensory conflict
• vestibular rehabilitation

Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by Grant-in-Aids from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development and from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. We thank Dr Kazuyoshi Tsukamoto, Professor Emeritus of Kagawa University for his invaluable and indispensable help.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.