A team of researchers at Salford University are using virtual reality as part of a project aimed at improving walking for people who have survived brain injury.
They are now recruiting people who have experienced brain injuries – either through medical problems such as strokes or tumours, or through traumatic incidents such as car accidents – to take part in the study.
Virtual reality is being used to measure balance and relate this to problems with sensation in the feet in order to develop special insoles which stimulate the feet and improve walking in brain injury survivors.
Up to 85 per cent of people with brain injury have difficulty with sensation and balancing, but as sensation is usually tested in the hands, very little is known about sensation in the feet.
Dr Kristen Hollands, Senior Research Fellow at the University, explained: “Sensation from the soles of the feet tell our brains important information about our posture and the ground beneath us. We use this to control balance, but while many people have difficulty with both balance and sensation after brain injury, little is known about how difficulties with foot sensation affect balance.”
Researchers hope that through a range of techniques, such as using virtual reality to simulate situations which would normally cause balance problems, as well as tests on foot sensation, they will be able to create insoles to help overcome these difficulties.
With the increasing use of 3D printing, many companies have begun selling insoles which have textured surfaces or vibrate the feet. Some research has suggested these insoles may improve balance by stimulating sensation in healthy adults but it is not known whether the same is true for people with brain injury.
Researchers from the University’s School of Health Sciences and School of Health and Society will interview participants about their experiences of loss of foot sensation as well as balance and mobility.
They will also invite participants to undergo painless testing to get more information about how their feet detect sensations such as pressure, touch and temperature, and will use virtual reality environments to safely replicate situations which would create balance problems, such as reaching for a high shelf or trying to retain balance when standing on a bus that stops or starts suddenly.
The team will use this information to create a prototype insole targeting specific sensation problems relating to balance.
The study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research Brain Injury Healthcare Technology Co-operative, is hoped to lead to future research to develop and test this prototype.
Dr Hollands said: “The insoles that are available now have not been designed based on the experiences of people with brain injury, their balance and sensory problems, what they might want any insole to help them with, or any clinical measures of how foot sensation is affected by brain injury.
“Treatments in this area are being led by developments in technology rather than what patients actually need. Our project aims to redress this balance by engaging directly with people with brain injury and learning more about their difficulties and what they would want an insole to help them with.”
Dr Tracey Williamson, Reader in Public Involvement and Patient Engagement at the University, said: “This is another example of how members of the public are helping us do life-changing research and we would like as many people as possible to come forward.”
