Sensory integration for postural control relies on dynamic reweighting of visual, somatosensory, and vestibular inputs. The Clinical Test of Sensory Integration and Balance (CTSIB) is widely used, but laboratory-based systems can be costly and less portable....
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
If the VR-based CTSIB shows strong concurrent validity, vestibular and balance clinicians may consider it as a supplementary or telehealth-compatible assessment tool, but adoption should await replication in clinical (not just healthy) populations.
Validating a virtual-reality balance test could expand access to standardised vestibular assessment in remote or under-resourced settings and streamline rehabilitation monitoring.
- 01Compares a VR-based Clinical Test of Sensory Integration and Balance (CTSIB) to the gold-standard conventional version.
- 02Study population: middle-aged adults (not a clinical vestibular disorder sample).
- 03Published in Gait & Posture.
- 04Concurrent validity and agreement (not sensitivity/specificity in patients) are the focus.
- 05Findings are preliminary for clinical adoption — replication in vestibular patients needed.
A VR-based CTSIB demonstrates concurrent validity with conventional CTSIB in middle-aged adults.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42731297
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2026.110631.
- Journal
- Gait & Posture
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 2b
- Population
- Middle-aged adults (general population, not specifically vestibular patients)
- Intervention
- Virtual reality-based Clinical Test of Sensory Integration and Balance (VR-CTSIB)
- Comparator
- Conventional Clinical Test of Sensory Integration and Balance (CTSIB)
Primary outcomes
Concurrent validity of VR-CTSIB vs. conventional CTSIB; Agreement between the two measurement methods