Posture control to maintain an upright stance is one of the most important and basic requirements in the daily life of humans. The sensory inputs involved in posture control include visual and vestibular inputs, as well as proprioceptive and tactile somatosensory inputs. These multisensory inputs are integrated to represent the body state (body schema); this is then utilized in the brain to generate the motion. Changes in the multisensory inputs result in postural alterations (fast dynamics), as well as long-term alterations in multisensory integration and posture control itself (slow dynamics). In this review, we discuss the fast and slow dynamics, with a focus on multisensory integration including an introduction of our study to investigate "internal force control" with multisensory integration-evoked posture alteration. We found that the study of the slow dynamics is lagging compared to that of fast dynamics, such that our understanding of long-term alterations is insufficient to reveal the underlying mechanisms and to propose suitable models. Additional studies investigating slow dynamics are required to expand our knowledge of this area, which would support the physical training and rehabilitation of elderly and impaired persons.

The integration of multiple sensory modalities allows us to adapt to the environment of the outside world. It is widely known that visual stimuli interfere with the processing of auditory information, which is involved in the ability to pay attention. Additionally, visuospatial attention has the characteristic of laterality. It is unclear whether this laterality of visuospatial attention affects the processing of auditory stimuli. The sensorimotor gating system is a neurological process, which filters out unnecessary stimuli from environmental stimuli in the brain. Prepulse inhibition (PPI) is an operational measure of the sensorimotor gating system, which a weaker prestimulus (prepulse), such as a visual stimulus, inhibits the startle reflex elicited by a subsequent robust startling stimulus (pulse) such as a tone. Therefore, we investigated whether the visual stimulus from the left or right visual space affects the sensorimotor gating system in a “rest” task (low attentional condition) and a “selective attention” task (high attentional condition). In the selective attention task, we found that the target prepulse presented in the left and bilateral visual fields suppressed the startle reflex more than that presented in the right visual field. By contrast, there was no laterality of PPI in the no-target prepulse condition, and there was no laterality of PPI in the rest task. These results suggest that the laterality of visuospatial attention affects the sensorimotor gating system depending on the attentional condition. Moreover, the process of visual information processing may differ between the left and right brain.

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There was no objective evidence that restoring movement representation by neurorehabilitation with virtual reality alleviated phantom limb pain. This study revealed quantitatively that restoring movement representation with virtual reality rehabilitation using a bimanual coordination task correlated with alleviation of phantom limb pain.

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Background and objectives: The Honda Walking Assistive device® (HWA) is a light and easywearable robot device for gait training, which assists patients’ hip flexion and extension movementsto guide hip joint movements during gait. However, the safety and feasibility of robot-assisted gaittraining after total hip arthroplasty (THA) remains unclear. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the safetyand feasibility of this gait training intervention using HWA in a patient who underwent THA.Materials and methods: The patient was a 76-year-old woman with right hip osteoarthritis. Gaittraining using HWA was implemented for 20 sessions in total, five times per week from 1 week to5 weeks after THA. Self-selected walking speed (SWS), step length (SL), cadence, timed up and go(TUG), range of motion (ROM) of hip extension, and hip abduction and extension torque weremeasured preoperatively, and at 1 (pre-HWA), 2, 3, 4, 5 (post-HWA), and 10 weeks (follow-up) afterTHA. The gait patterns at SWS without HWA were measured by using three-dimensional (3D) gaitanalysis and an integrated electromyogram (iEMG). Results: The patient completed 20 gait trainingsessions with no adverse event. Hip abduction torque at the operative side, hip extension torque,SWS, SL, and cadence were higher at post-HWA than at pre-HWA. In particular, SWS, TUG, andhip torque were remarkably increased 3 weeks after THA and improved to almost the same levelsat follow-up. Maximum hip extension angle and hip ROM during gait were higher at post-HWAthan at pre-HWA. Maximum and minimum anterior pelvic tilt angles were lower at post-HWA thanat pre-HWA. The iEMG of the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius in the stance phase were lowerat post-HWA than preoperatively and at pre-HWA. Conclusions: In this case, the gait training usingHWA was safe and feasible, and could be effective for the early improvement of gait ability, hipfunction, and gait pattern after THA.