In their study, Franz and colleagues chose to use a VR-based method to perturb the visual perception of balance. But this sense of proprioception declines in the elderly, as well as in people who have neurodegenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, leading to a much greater reliance on visual cues to maintain balance. So, healthy people usually have no trouble walking in the dark or with their eyes closed. Young and healthy adults rely predominantly on the mechanical "sensors" in their feet and legs to give them an accurate sense of body position. These things provide an important roadmap for detecting balance impairments and the risk of future falls." "We also learned how individual muscles are highly coordinated in preserving walking balance. "We were able to identify the muscles that orchestrate balance corrections during walking," Franz said. In principle, a similar setup could be used in clinical settings to diagnose balance impairments, or even to train people to improve their balance while walking.
![virtual reality falls virtual reality falls](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/dronephotos.soldbyair.com/3020-real-estate-photography-falls-church-va-65.jpg)
By perturbing their sense of balance in this way and recording their movements, Franz's team was able to determine how the participants' muscles responded.
![virtual reality falls virtual reality falls](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jiLEeOaj4XI/hqdefault.jpg)
Franz, PhD, assistant professor in the Joint UNC/NC State department of biomedical engineering, used a novel VR system to create the visual illusion of a loss of balance as study participants walked on a treadmill. In a study published in Nature Scientific Reports, a research team led by Jason R.