Body Sway When Standing and Listening to Music Modified to Reinforce Virtual Reality Environment Motion

The increased likelihood of falls as a consequence of aging or disease is
generally associated with rising levels of body sway during stance. The use
of virtual reality (VR) for studying the role in vision in regulating body
sway is well established, however the extent to which music incorporated into
a virtual environment can influence sway is not understood. This dataset was
collected as part of a study to explore the hypothesis that music manipulated
to match VR motion provided by an Oculus Rift head mounted display can lead to
increased levels of body sway. Twenty-eight subjects stood for 60 s on a
balance platform that measured anterior posterior (AP) and medial lateral (ML)
center of pressure movement (indicators of body sway). While standing, the
subjects experienced combinations of 3 visual conditions (VR translation in
the AP direction at 0.1 Hz, no translation, and eyes closed) and 4 music
conditions (Mozart's Jupiter Symphony modified to scale volume at 0.1 Hz and
0.25 Hz, unmodified music, and no music) for a total of 12 trials. Analysis of
the data using frequency domain measures may reveal the extent to which music
influenced body sway.