Effects of Wearable Continuous Normal-Force Tactile Feedback Applied to the Fingertip on Standing Balance in Healthy Young Adults.

trajectories using root mean square (RMS), mean velocity (MV), maximum deviation (MD), and centroid frequency (CF), and analyzed with linear mixed-effects (LME) models. Continuous normal-force feedback significantly reduced sway magnitude (RMS; p < 0.001) and increased control activity (MV: p < 0.001; CF: p < 0.001), whereas no main effect was observed for MD. The absence of significant Vision × Feedback interactions across all behavioral metrics (p > 0.05) suggests that normal-force feedback provided similar benefits across visual conditions in the present study. These findings support the potential of continuous normal-force feedback as a physiologically grounded sensory augmentation strategy that contributes to postural regulation and may inform the development of future wearable balance-assistance devices. However, the physiological mechanisms underlying this visual-tactile integration, as well as its effectiveness in broader populations, remain to be elucidated.