Effects of Cervical Spinal Manipulation on Saccadic Eye Movements.

Quantifying saccadic eye movements can assist in identifying dysfunctional brain networks in both healthy and diseased people. Infrared Oculography is a simple and non-invasive approach to capturing and quantifying saccades, providing information that might aid in diagnosis and outcome assessments. The effect of spinal manipulation on quantified saccadic performance parameters has not been fully studied despite known post-manipulative effects on the brain and brainstem regions controlling them. This case study investigates spinal manipulation's immediate and long-term effects on saccadic eye movements by quantifying the saccades of a male patient diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome. The patient performed horizontal saccades that were quantified before and immediately following cervical spinal manipulation both at the case study's start and following a 2-week interim, during which the subject received six manipulative treatments. Immediate and long-term post-manipulative effects were observed, and the results revealed various post-manipulative effects across all quantified parameters in addition to between right and leftward saccades. The immediate post-manipulative effect was greatest at the case study's onset, while the long-term right and leftward saccadic symmetry were most affected. The observations in this case study demonstrate that cervical spinal manipulation influences saccadic eye movements, providing new insights into its central neurological effects and therapeutic applications beyond its most commonly known use in pain management. More importantly, it encourages scientists to undertake further clinical investigations on wider scales.

Effect of tone-based sound stimulation on balance performance of normal subjects: preliminary investigation.

Sound is known to affect the human brain, hence sound or music therapy is sometimes used to improve a subject's physicaland mental health. In this study, the effects sound stimulation has on balance were investigated by means of computerizeddynamic posturography tests performed with eyes closed on an unstable surface using a CAPS® system, exceeding theInternational Society for Posture and Gait Research (ISPGR) recommended metrological performance standards. Subjectswere tested without listening to any music (baseline), listening to “pure music”, and listening to the same music with differenttones embedded into it (one for each key). We found that different subjects react differently to different tones. Music alonedid not have a statistically significant effect on balance compared to the baseline, but the “best” tone significantly improvedbalance compared to the baseline or the “pure music” conditions. Furthermore, the “worst” tone reduced the balancecompared to “pure music”, but the reduction was not statistically significant relative to the baseline. The results thereforeindicate that, at least relative to balance performance, the tone-based sound stimulation we investigated is effective andinherently safe, but that tone selection depends on the individual subject.