Comparison of Postural Stubility and Auditory Short- Term Memory Taks Interference between Patients with Functional Ankle Instability and Healthy Individuals

With increased recognition of the importance of conscious process and cognition activities in the stability and regulation of posture and also in line of probable adaptation in central nervous system in patients with functional ankle instability, this study was aimed to assess interference patterns between short–term memory task and postural stability tasks in functional ankle instability patients in comparison with healthy individuals.

In this cross–sectional and case–control study, with dual–task paradigm fifteen functional ankle instability patients whom were selected simply and conveniently and fifteen healthy persons whom were matched with patients as control group were assessed and compared. Six steps of tests were performed for every case with two situation of balance Biodex system instability and three situation of auditory short–term memory task. Data were analyzed by repeated measurement ANOVA.

Finding showed that there was significant interference between postural task and cognitive task in both groups (P<0.05), but there was no significant difference between interferences of two groups.

Present study, certificated disruption in information processing in a peripheral musculoskeletal injury such as functional ankle instability. Application of training programs in order to facilitate central information processing in balance rehabilitation process of this patients and improved dual–task paradigms with different degrees of cognitive and postural tasks seems to be effective.