Postural estimation and cognitive impact of vestibular disorders

Details

Supervisors

Lacroix, Emilie ; Edwards, Martin

Faculty

Faculté de psychologie, logopédie, sexologie et des sciences de la famille

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences psychologiques, à finalité approfondie

Abstract

For decades, the literature on the vestibular system only emphasized its critical role in the maintenance of gait and orientation through space. However, in recent years a growing body of studies have demonstrated that the vestibular system contributes to far more cognitive processes than previously thought, these implications of the vestibular systems on the cognitive processes are often referred to as vestibular cognition. Nonetheless, the main implications of vestibular cognition and the cognitive costs of vestibular compensation are still poorly understood. Nowadays, the classical ways to assess vestibular disorders in the ENT’s departments are to use platforms of posturography which are expensive and require a very large area to function properly. Recently, the latest advancements in computer vision science have allowed the emergence of precise and useful pose estimation in humans which could be a reliable tool in addition to traditional measures in the evaluation of the patient’s movements. The aim of this master’s thesis was to investigate the relationship between vestibular compensation and cognition and to try the implementation of a pose estimation algorithm on video recordings of vestibular patients. Vestibular patients were asked to perform subjective and objective cognitive tests and a mobility task. We did not manage to find a main effect of vestibular compensation on cognition. However, the results measured by the algorithm were quite similar to those obtained manually. Using these data, significant correlations were found between the measures of the mobility task and the subjective and objective cognitive tasks. This experiment is one of the first to our knowledge, in which a pose estimation algorithm has been used to explore the vestibular cognition. Future work should be focused on the recalibration of the algorithm and the replication of the results with a larger sample.