Pick up the pace David H. Wells/Superstock
Mild electrical stimulation just behind the ear seems to boost our balance and makes us walk more quickly with longer strides. The finding could lead to a device that helps people with balance disorders get around more easily.
When we move, hairs in our inner ears detect changes in speed and feed this information back to the brain, helping to stabilise vision and posture, improving our balance. Shinichi Iwasaki, at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and his colleagues have found that electrical stimulation seems to enhance this, prompting people to walk faster.
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