The effects of mild traumatic brain injury on postural control

ABSTRACT

Primary objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) on multiple postural indices that characterize body sway behaviour.

Methods and procedures: The body’s centre of pressure (COP) displacement was recorded from 11 individuals with a history of mTBI (29.4 ± 6.7 years old) and 11 healthy controls (26.8 ± 3.7 years old) performing bipedal stance on a force platform for 120 seconds. Spatio-temporal (area, amplitude and mean velocity of the COP displacement) and frequency characteristics (frequency containing 80% of the power spectral density) of the body oscillation, as well as its dynamic characteristics (sample entropy estimate of the COP displacement) were extracted from COP signals.

Main outcomes and results: All postural indices studied were significantly affected by mTBI (p < 0.010). Participants with a history of mTBI presented a larger, slower, and more random body oscillation compared to controls.

Conclusion: The results suggest that (a) balance deficits can be recognized as an effect of mTBI; (b) balance deficits induced by mTBI are multi-dimensional, affecting all three domains included in this study; and (c) the postural indices employed in this study are potential markers to detect changes in postural control following mTBI.

KEYWORDS:

• Traumatic brain injury
• concussion
• balance
• mild brain injury

Declaration of interest

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