TheraSponge

TheraSponge Perturbative Walking and Balance Training Set, a new invention in rehabilitation, are non-slip sponge structures of different hardnesses that allow balance applications at different levels of difficulty, creating an unpredictable perturbative effect when exposed to pressure on the walking line created.

It is seen in recent studies that perturbation application helps to create the most appropriate environment in terms of similarity to the environment we live in in walking education and stimulates problem solving. 

Balance control is achieved by the integration and co-ordination of different body systems. These systems are the vestibular, visual, somatosensory (proprioception) and motor systems. Information (input) from all sensory systems is processed and interpreted by the central nervous system, resulting in the response (output) required for appropriate muscle activation and body movement. 

This process of processing and integrating sensory cues in body movements produces a warning signal between predicted and actual sensory cues of balance-related movements. In response to this stimulus, compensatory motor commands are generated by the central nervous system. For healthy individuals, balancing is a simple task requiring little effort and energy. Congenital difficulties with balance do not appear until a pathology or injury impairs balance control.

In neurological disorders, it is possible to observe serious changes in the peripheral and central nervous systems, such as changes in proprioception or mechanoreceptors resulting from slow transmission of somatosensory impulses, changes in the integration of sensory inputs, somatosensory disorders including changes in reflexes, muscle strength, neuromuscular function and muscle tone. 

Perturbation has taken its place in neurological rehabilitation with its contributions to proprioception, mobilisation and cognitive processes by activating appropriate brain centres. TheraSponge Perturbative Walking and Balance Training Set also makes a great contribution to the easy, comfortable, reliable and goal-oriented studies of perturbation application in rehabilitation.