Creighton vestibular research to improve balance treatment, fall prevention
The human body is a marvel, made up of intricate organ systems and networks of interconnected pathways that work in perfect harmony. We don’t think about breathing; it’s second nature. We open our eyes and expect to see. Our minds tell us to put one foot in front of the other, and they obey.
So, it’s easy to take our health for granted. Until we face a challenge.
Rarely, for instance, do we think about the body’s balance system. But if an infection settles in our ears, resulting in vertigo, we feel the loss of stability acutely. Yet, this is a common experience for those contending with disorders of the vestibular system, located within the inner ear. The resulting dizziness, instability and threat of falls significantly affect their everyday lives.
Creighton University researchers are using technology found in only a handful of laboratories worldwide to better understand how the vestibular system works and, ultimately, improve care for people living with balance disorders.
Led by Andrew Wagner, PhD, PT, DPT, assistant professor of physical therapy, the research centers on a sophisticated six-degree-of-freedom motion simulator that recreates the complex movements people experience in real life. The platform allows researchers to study how the brain and body respond to motion in ways that would be nearly impossible using conventional research equipment.
As a physical therapy student, Wagner completed a clinical rotation at a vestibular rehabilitation clinic. The experience was the beginning of his fascination with the vestibular system. “After I entered clinical practice, that interest grew into a passion for finding new ways to improve outcomes for people experiencing dizziness, balance problems and other vestibular disorders,” he says.
How Creighton's motion simulator recreates real-world balance challenges
Unlike many laboratory tests that isolate a single type of motion, Creighton’s motion platform can simultaneously rotate and translate participants in multiple directions. That capability more closely mirrors the complex movements people encounter throughout daily life.
“The vestibular system is a six-dimensional sensor that continuously detects complex rotations and translations of the head. To fully understand how it works, you need the ability to recreate and measure those motions in all six dimensions,” Wagner explains.
Participants take part in two primary types of experiments. In one, they sit in a racing-style seat mounted to the motion platform while blindfolded and use handheld buttons to indicate the direction they believe they are moving. In another, they stand on force plates while the platform produces carefully controlled multidirectional movements that challenge their balance.
“The movements are precisely controlled and designed to safely challenge the vestibular system,” Wagner says.
Researchers measure how participants respond using motion capture technology and have plans to incorporate virtual reality into future studies.
The ability to recreate these multidirectional experiences distinguishes the research from many traditional balance studies. “When someone slips on ice, they rarely fall straight forward or directly to one side. Instead, the body experiences a combination of movements in multiple directions all at the same time,” Wagner explains. “Our system allows us to recreate those multidirectional balance challenges, making our experiments much more representative of real-world situations.”
Advancing vestibular research to improve diagnosis and rehabilitation
Wagner says the research has already yielded a new understanding of how the body’s balance system manages movement. “One of our most exciting findings is that the vestibular system appears to process multiple types of motion simultaneously, rather than treating each movement independently. That gives us new insight into how people maintain balance during the complex movements they encounter every day,” he states.
Those discoveries could eventually translate into more personalized care for patients experiencing vertigo and other vestibular disorders. By creating multidimensional assessments of vestibular function, researchers hope clinicians will one day be able to identify a patient’s specific impairments and tailor rehabilitation accordingly rather than relying on broader treatment approaches.
“Ultimately, we’re trying to help prevent falls in older adults by developing more personalized vestibular rehabilitation,” Wagner says. “We’re pursuing two major goals: better measuring how the vestibular system functions and developing targeted treatments that reduce falls, lessen dizziness and improve quality of life.”
Preparing future physical therapy researchers through hands-on vestibular science
The laboratory also gives Creighton students an opportunity to work with research equipment that few students elsewhere ever encounter. Says Wagner: “Students gain hands-on experience with technology that exists in only a handful of laboratories worldwide.”
“More importantly,” he adds, “they develop skills at the intersection of neuroscience, rehabilitation and data science,” skills that extend across biomedical science.
The research also carries the important public message that balance disorders are quite common. And while they can significantly affect an individual’s quality of life, including “dizziness, imbalance, falls and a loss of confidence in everyday activities,” Wagner lists, they are treatable.
“Vestibular rehabilitation is highly effective for many patients,” he says. Unfortunately, “far too few people are referred for, or seek out, this type of treatment.”
As the research program expands to include virtual reality and additional multidimensional testing, Creighton’s cutting-edge laboratory is poised to deepen scientific understanding of the vestibular system while helping shape more precise, personalized approaches to balance rehabilitation.
Interested in the future of physical therapy and rehabilitation research? Learn more about Creighton University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program and discover how researchers at the Dr. Richard J. Bellucci Translational Hearing Center are advancing innovations in balance, hearing and vestibular health.
