Effects of visual, audio and tongue tactile sensory substitution systems for the control of buttock pressures in seated posture
Résumé
Our group recently developed a biomedical device for preventing pressure ulcer formation in spinal cord injured patients. Based on the concept of “sensory substitution”, its general principle consists in supplying the patient with supplementary sensory information regarding the adequate seated posture to adopt to relieve or reduce the buttock pressures. The present study was designed to assess the performance of three different substitutive modalities, namely visual, audio and tongue tactile. Height young healthy adults voluntarily participated to the experiment. Seated in front of a DVD movie, they were asked to reduce their buttock pressure, while benefiting from visual, audio and tactile sensory substitution systems or not. Visual, audio and tactile feedback consisted in visual alarms provided on the edges on TV screen, sound audio signals provided on earphones, and electrotactile stimulations of the dorsal part of the tongue provided by a dedicated device, namely the tongue display unit, respectively. Based on the encouraging results of this experimental proof-of concept study, these sensory substitution systems are currently being clinically evaluated in paraplegics.