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Light Touch Contact as a Balance Aid

JJ Jeka, PhD, is Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology, College of Health and Human Performance, University of Maryland at College Park, Room 2359, HHP Bldg, College Park, MD 20742-2611 (USA) (jj96@umail.umd.edu).

Canes and crutches are commonly used mobility aids, and most studies of their use have focused on issues equating support with the resulting decrease in force required of the affected limb. Clinicians, however, often observe patients with poor balance control using light touch of surrounding objects and surfaces to stabilize themselves while standing and walking. A series of studies have shown that sensory input to the hand and arm through contact cues at the fingertip or through a cane can reduce postural sway in individuals who have no impairments and in patients without a functioning vestibular system, even when contact force levels are inadequate to provide physical support of the body. This article summarizes these results, which have implications for design considerations of rehabilitation aids. Mobility devices or rehabilitation aids that provide feedback about applied force or enhance existing resolution of applied force changes across the skin surface may lead to new rehabilitation techniques.

Key Words: Cane • Fingertip • Mobility aid • Neural plasticity • Posture • Rehabilitation • Somatosensory • Vestibular

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