Virtual Reality in Children With and Without Vestibular Deficits

Plain-language summary

Vestibular information is important in establishing a child's static and dynamic postural control. Any vestibular deficit can have major consequences on development, spatial cognition and quality of life. In order to interact with the world around us, we must simultaneously integrate different sources of sensory informations (vision, hearing, perception of the body...). The brain integrates these different sensory components to form a unified and coherent perception: this is multisensory integration. Multisensory integration has been studied using virtual reality in adults, in the "spatial orientation" team of the Center for Integrative Neurosciences and Cognition. These experiments were carried out on healthy subjects and in weightless situations (international space station or parabolic flight). However, no protocol has been developed in children or in subjects with vestibular deficit. Virtual reality is interesting for developing such a protocol because it creates multisensory stimulation capable of promoting visual and proprioceptive compensation of the vestibular deficit. It induces an immersion of the patient in a virtual spatial and temporal environment difficult to carry out with traditional vestibular rehabilitation techniques. Its main advantage is that it is a fun and safe interactive diagnostic and therapeutic tool, which is particularly suitable for children. Being able to modulate certain sensory information using virtual reality, in children without vestibular function deficit and in children with vestibular function deficit, will make it possible to better understand the role of the vestibule in the construction of the self in relation to space and environment. In addition to the scientific aspect, the diagnostic and therapeutic benefits are potentially numerous. The objective of the study is to determine a reliable, well-tolerated and age-appropriate virtual reality protocol in children without vestibular deficit and in children with chronic vestibular deficit, making it possible to study the hand-eye coordination.

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