Vibrotactile cueing is engineered to allow patients to receive positional feedback with their eyes closed. (Photo courtesy of Biodex Medical Systems.)
Biodex Medical Systems Inc, Shirley, NY, has added the VibroTactile System to the company’s balance line of physical medicine devices.
Providing real-time biofeedback during rehabilitation can be helpful to patients and clinicians. While audio and visual biofeedback are inherent to the Biodex Balance System SD and portable BioSway, the VibroTactile System is offered as an option for these balance devices.
According to a media release from Biodex, once incorporated into the Balance System SD or portable BioSway, the VibroTactile System offers the capability to provide a third sense to postural sway biofeedback. Using wireless technology, the tactile belt responds with a vibrating sensation when the patient sways outside the therapist-set parameters. Vibrotactile cueing improves balance rehabilitation by directly engaging the motor-learning system, reinforcing brain plasticity – this provides sensory enrichment to therapy tasks.
The VibroTactile System was created to be an ideal means to provide balance feedback with eyes closed. Patients with vestibular challenges can be overly dependent on visual and somatosensory systems. The Biodex media release states that to bring a greater focus to the vestibular system during balance training, the visual sense needs to be eliminated.
The release notes that the device is built to be specially suited for evaluation and treatment of vestibular disorders because vibrotactile cueing allows patients to receive positional feedback with their eyes closed. This aspect of the devices function, the release explains, provides a method to enhance postural control.
[Source: Biodex]
