Association between vestibulo-ocular reflex suppression, balance, gait, and fall risk in ageing and neurodegenerative disease: protocol of a one-year prospective follow-up study

Table 1 Experimental design to allow simultaneous analysis of vestibulo-ocular reflex, vestibulo-ocular reflex suppression and balance (while standing) and balance and gait (while walking)

	Sitting	Standing	Walking
Head-impulse test (VOR) passive	✓
Head-impulse test (VOR) active	✓	✓	✓
Smooth eye-head tracking passive	✓
Smooth eye-head tracking active	✓	✓	✓
“Natural” walking			✓
Fixation-/no-fixation		✓	✓
Rapid eye-head gaze shifts	✓	✓	✓

Measurements will be performed in three different conditions: Sitting, Standing, and Walking. Passive = head movement made by examiner. Active = head movement made by subject (important while standing and walking, as the examiner should not influence the subjects balance and gait). VOR = vestibulo-ocular reflex. Smooth eye-head tracking = vestibulo-ocular reflex suppression test with head-fixed target. “natural” walking = treadmill walking without presentation of visual stimuli (control task). Fixation-/no-fixation = standing or walking 30 s. without fixation of a visual target, standing or walking 30 s. while fixation of a visual target. Rapid eye-head gaze shifts = vestibulo-ocular reflex suppression test while rapid gaze shifts

ISSN: 1471-2377