Vision and eye movements play a crucial role in maintaining postural stability. This study investigated the relationship between eye movements and postural control in healthy adults using mobile eye-tracking technology and posturography. Forty healthy participants underwent assessments of eye movements using a mobile eye-tracking system and postural stability using Tetrax posturography under various sensory conditions. Pearson correlation coefficients were computed to examine associations between eye movement parameters and postural control indices. Significant correlations were found between eye movement parameters and postural stability indices. Faster and more consistent horizontal eye movements were associated with better postural stability (r = -0.63, p < 0.05). Eye movement speed variability positively correlated with weight distribution indices under normal eyes open (r = 0.65, p < 0.05) and closed (r = 0.59, p < 0.05) conditions. Coordination of horizontal and vertical eye movements positively correlated with postural control (r = 0.69, p < 0.01). Negative correlations were observed between eye movement coordination and Fourier indices in various frequency bands (p < 0.05) and the stability index under different head positions (p < 0.05). The findings provide insights into sensory integration mechanisms underlying balance maintenance and highlight the importance of integrated sensory processing in postural stability. Eye movement assessments have potential applications in balance evaluation and fall risk prediction.

Sensory integration is an essential human function whose decline impacts quality of life, particularly in older adults. Herein, we propose an arm-reaching task based on a virtual reality head-mounted display system to assess sensory integration in daily life, and we examined whether reaching task performance was associated with resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between the brain regions involved in sensory integration. We hypothesized that declining sensory integration would affect performance during a reaching task with multiple cognitive loads. Using a task in which a young/middle-aged group showed only small individual differences, older adults showed large individual differences in the gap angle between the reaching hand and the target position, which was used to assess sensory integration function. Additionally, rsfMRI data were used to identify correlations between rsFC and performance in older adults, showing that performance was correlated with connectivity between the primary motor area and the left inferior temporal gyrus and temporo-occipital region. Connectivity between areas is related to visuomotor integration; thus, the results suggest the involvement of visuomotor integration in the decline of sensory integration function and the validity of the gap angle during this VR reaching task as an index of functional decline.

This article presents a case report of a three and half year-old boy with functional constipation and sensory hyperreactivity. The Integrated Sensory Toileting® approach was used to guide clinical reasoning and identify the sensory underlying factors that were impacting the child\'s ability to acquire age-appropriate toileting habits and gastrointestinal health. The six months of treatment in occupational therapy and gastroenterology, as well as six months of follow-up are described. Improvements in sensory reactivity are documented using the Sensory Processing Measure-2 and the Toileting Habit Profile Questionnaire-Revised and corroborate with improvements in the child\'s ability to participate in toileting routines and improved gastrointestinal health.

Virtual walking systems for stationary observers have been developed using multimodal stimulation such as vision, touch, and sound to overcome physical limitation. In previous studies, participants were typically positioned in either a standing or a seated position. It would be beneficial if bedridden users could have enough virtual walking experience. Thus, we aimed to investigate the effects of participants\' posture and foot vibrations on the experience of virtual walking. They were either sitting, standing, or lying during observing a virtual scene of a walking avatar in the first-person perspective, while vibrations either synchronized or asynchronized (randomized) to the avatar\'s walking were applied to their feet. We found that the synchronized foot vibrations improved virtual walking experiences compared to asynchronous vibrations. The standing position consistently offered an improved virtual walking experience compared to sitting and lying positions with either the synchronous or asynchronous foot vibrations, while the difference between the siting and lying postures was small and not significant. Furthermore, subjective scores for posture matching between real and virtual postures, illusory body ownership, and sense of agency were significantly higher with the synchronous than the asynchronous vibration. These findings suggest that experiencing virtual walking with foot vibrations in a lying position is less effective than a standing position, but not much different from a sitting position.

BACKGROUND: Information about the development of cognitive skills and the effect of sensory integration in children using auditory brainstem implants (ABIs) is still limited.
OBJECTIVE: This study primarily aims to investigate the relationship between sensory processing skills and attention and memory abilities in children with ABI, and secondarily aims to examine the effects of implant duration on sensory processing and cognitive skills in these children.
METHODS: The study included 25 children between the ages of 6 and 10 years (mean age: 14 girls and 11 boys) with inner ear and/or auditory nerve anomalies using auditory brainstem implants. Visual-Aural Digit Span Test B, Marking Test, Dunn Sensory Profile Questionnaire were applied to all children.
RESULTS: The sensory processing skills of children are statistically significant and positive, and moderately related to their cognitive skills. As the duration of implant use increases, better attention and memory performances have been observed (p < .05).
CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrated the positive impact of sensory processing on the development of memory and attention skills in children with ABI. It will contribute to evaluating the effectiveness of attention, memory, and sensory integration skills, and aiding in the development of more effective educational strategies for these children.

For organisms tracking a chemical cue to its source, the motion of their surrounding fluid provides crucial information for success. Swimming and flying animals engaged in olfaction-driven search often start by turning into the direction of an oncoming wind or water current. However, it is unclear how organisms adjust their strategies when directional cues are absent or unreliable, as is often the case in nature. Here, we use the genetic toolkit of Drosophila melanogaster to develop an optogenetic paradigm to deliver temporally precise \"virtual\" olfactory experiences for free-flying animals in either laminar wind or still air. We first confirm that in laminar wind flies turn upwind. Furthermore, we show that they achieve this using a rapid (∼100 ms) turn, implying that flies estimate the ambient wind direction prior to \"surging\" upwind. In still air, flies adopt a remarkably stereotyped \"sink and circle\" search state characterized by ∼60° turns at 3-4 Hz, biased in a consistent direction. Together, our results show that Drosophila melanogaster assesses the presence and direction of ambient wind prior to deploying a distinct search strategy. In both laminar wind and still air, immediately after odor onset, flies decelerate and often perform a rapid turn. Both maneuvers are consistent with predictions from recent control theoretic analyses for how insects may estimate properties of wind while in flight. We suggest that flies may use their deceleration and \"anemometric\" turn as active sensing maneuvers to rapidly gauge properties of their wind environment before initiating a proximal or upwind search routine.

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurological development with social and communication deficits and sensory abnormalities. Sensory problems have a significant impact on daily life. Multisensory environments (MSEs), such as Snoezelen® rooms, offer controlled sensory stimulation. This study aims to evaluate the effect of MSE intervention with self-controlled sensory interactions on adaptive developmental skills and sensory responses in preschool ASD children. Methods: This pilot study was single-blind, randomized, controlled, and adhered to the CONSORT guidelines. Twenty participants were recruited and randomized into two groups: the control group (CG) underwent treatment as usual (TAU) with individual rehabilitation sessions of psychomotor therapy. The experimental group (EG) underwent TAU integrated with the use of an MSE. Developmental abilities and severity levels were assessed, pre-post, with the Psychoeducational Profile, Third Edition (PEP-3) and the Second Edition Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS-2). Results: A significant difference in taste, smell, and tactile behaviors according to the CARS-2, as well as in gross motor skills according to the PEP-3, was observed in the EG. Conclusions: This pilot study suggests that MSE-integrated intervention may be a valid strategy to improve self-management of the sensory profile in autistic individuals. Further studies are needed to better identify the intervention methodology and effectiveness.

The ability to make accurate and timely decisions, such as judging when it is safe to cross the road, is the foundation of adaptive behavior. While the computational and neural processes supporting simple decisions on isolated stimuli have been well characterized, decision-making in the real world often requires integration of discrete sensory events over time and space. Most previous experimental work on perceptual decision-making has focused on tasks that involve only a single, task-relevant source of sensory input. It remains unclear, therefore, how such integrative decisions are regulated computationally. Here we used psychophysics, electroencephalography, and computational modeling to understand how the human brain combines visual motion signals across space in the service of a single, integrated decision. To that purpose, we presented two random-dot kinematograms in the left and the right visual hemifields. Coherent motion signals were shown briefly and concurrently in each location, and healthy adult human participants of both sexes reported the average of the two motion signals. We directly tested competing predictions arising from influential serial and parallel accounts of visual processing. Using a biologically plausible model of motion filtering, we found evidence in favor of parallel integration as the fundamental computational mechanism regulating integrated perceptual decisions.

The relative contributions of proprioceptive, vestibular, and visual sensory cues to balance control change depending on their availability and reliability. This sensory reweighting is classically supported by nonlinear sway responses to increasing visual surround and/or surface tilt amplitudes. However, recent evidence indicates that visual cues are reweighted based on visual tilt velocity rather than tilt amplitude. Therefore, we designed a study to specifically test the hypothesized velocity dependence of reweighting while expanding on earlier findings for visual reweighting by testing proprioceptive reweighting for standing balance on a tilting surface. Twenty healthy young adults stood with their eyes closed on a toes-up/-down tilting platform. We designed four pseudorandom tilt sequences with either a slow (S) or a fast (F) tilt velocity and different peak-to-peak amplitudes. We used model-based interpretations of measured sway characteristics to estimate the proprioceptive sensory weight (Wprop) within each trial. In addition, root-mean-square values of measured body center of mass sway amplitude (RMS) and velocity (RMSv) were calculated for each tilt sequence. Wprop, RMS, and RMSv values varied depending on the stimulus velocity, exhibiting large effects (all Cohen\'s d >1.10). In contrast, we observed no significant differences across stimulus amplitudes for Wprop (Cohen\'s d: 0.02-0.16) and, compared with the differences in velocity, there were much smaller changes in RMS and RMSv values (Cohen\'s d: 0.05-0.91). These results confirmed the hypothesized velocity, rather than amplitude, dependence of sensory reweighting.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This novel study examined the velocity dependence of sensory reweighting for human balance control using support surface tilt stimuli with independently varied amplitude and velocity. Estimates of the proprioceptive contribution to standing balance, derived from model-based interpretations of sway characteristics, showed greater sensitivity to changes in surface tilt velocity than surface tilt amplitude. These results support a velocity-based mechanism underlying sensory reweighting for human balance control.

UNASSIGNED: Traumatic experiences during childhood have been suggested to alter the course of sensory and motor development due to the impact on neural connections within the brain at integral periods. This connection has been alluded to in literature and is discussed anecdotally by practitioners suggesting the impact is commonly seen in practice. Previous scoping reviews in this area have focused solely on the process of sensory modulation without exploring the connection to motor planning.
UNASSIGNED: This scoping review considers what is known from the existing literature about the impact of childhood trauma on sensory processing and motor skills.
UNASSIGNED: This scoping review followed the JBI methodology for scoping reviews (Peters et al., 2020), searching CINAHL plus, Proquest, Scopus, PsycINFO, EThOS, as well as a search of the reference lists of the articles and citation chaining, to locate both published and unpublished sources. Articles were reviewed by two reviewers independently, with a third reviewer verifying those that met inclusion criteria where there was disagreement.
UNASSIGNED: Six articles were identified that met the inclusion criteria for the study. While all included studies suggested the concurrence of sensory processing and motor difficulties in individuals who have experienced childhood trauma they did not conclusively make the link between the two suggesting an overall low level of evidence. Commonalities were identified in relation to the areas of the brain impacted and the nature of difficulties experienced with some suggestion of this varying according to stage of development and the specific nature of the trauma.
UNASSIGNED: This study suggests emerging evidence in relation to the connection between trauma, sensory processing and motor development but that further empirical research is needed to verify this and inform practice.