Immediate effect of noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation on paraspinal muscle activation and postural control in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis
XIE Haoyu
LI Yan
XIE Hao
WANG Chuhuai
Abstract：Objective To investigate the effect of noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation(nGVS)on postural control,paraspinal mus-cle activation and cortical activation of patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis(AIS)during quiet standing.Methods A total of 30 eligible participants with AIS were recruited from the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen Uni-versity between December,2023 and June,2025,and finished upright standing tasks on both stable and unstable surfaces under nGVS,sham and no stimulation conditions.They were synchronously measured sway area(SA),medial-lateral and anterior-posterior sway length(SLML and SLAP)and velocity(VML and VAP)of center of pressure(COP)with three-dimensional force platform;the root mean square(RMS)of the bilateral paraspinal muscles at upper end vertebra,apical vertebra and lower end vertebra levels were measured with wireless surface electromy-ography,and convex/concave activation ratio was calculated;and cortical activation of bilateral dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex(DLPFC),supplementary motor area,premotor cortex,primary somatosensory cortex and primary motor cortex were measured with functional near-infrared spectroscopy.Results Compared to the sham and no stimulation conditions,nGVS significantly reduced SA(F=4.645,P=0.006,η²p=0.138),SLML(F=7.651,P=0.001,η²p=0.209)and VML(F=5.035,P=0.010,η²p=0.148);increased the RMS of paraspinal muscles on the concave side of the apical vertebra(F=6.486,P=0.003,η²p=0.183),and de-creased its convex/concave activation ratio(F=4.028,P=0.023,η²p=0.122),and enhanced activation of bilater-al DLPFC(F>6.718,P<0.01,η²p>0.188).The mediation analysis confirmed a significant path of nGVS-DLP-FC-convex/concave activation ratio-COP displacement(P<0.05).Conclusion nGVS may improve postural control in patients with AIS by enhancing DLPFC activation and ameliorating paraspinal muscle imbalance.
Keywords：adolescent idiopathic scoliosisnoisy galvanic vestibular stimulationpostural controlparaspinal muscledorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Publication Date：2026-02-25
Online Publishing Date：2026-03-18(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：11( 222-232 )