Jorge Alves and Adriana Santos

Balance training has been applied to compensate and rehabilitate balance dysfunctions in healthy aging and neurological disorders. Technological advances have allowed the development of interactive and feedback systems as an application of virtual reality to balance training.

Research shows encouraging results on the benefits and effects of virtual reality balance training in normal aging and conditions such as acquired brain injury (e.g. Stroke, Traumatic Brain Injury) and neurodegenerative disorders (e.g. Parkinson, Multiple Sclerosis). However definite conclusions on the efficacy, cost-effectiveness and optimal parameters of virtual reality balance training remain to be established.