Dr Worley Bio
Posturography and Balance Testing
The posturography platform measures how your body stays upright under different conditions. We change what your eyes see, what your feet feel, and where your head is positioned to see how your brain uses balance information.
This is powerful because balance is not something your brain can turn off. Your brain is always asking, “Am I safe right now and where am I in space?” If that answer feels uncertain, your nervous system stays stuck in fight or flight.
We compare what we see on the balance platform with what we see in your eye movement testing. When both line up, it gives us strong confirmation of where your nervous system is struggling and what needs support.
Improving balance and spatial awareness is not just about preventing falls. It helps your brain feel safer, calmer, and more stable which creates a much better environment for healing.
VNG and Eye Movement Testing
VNG stands for Videonystagmography, which simply means we use special goggles to record how your eyes move. Your eye movements give us a direct window into how your brain, inner ear, and balance system are working together.
We run a series of 10 eye movement tests that look at things like how well you can hold your gaze, track moving targets, and shift your eyes quickly and accurately. Two of the most important parts of this exam are done in darkness and during moving visual patterns called OPK.
Testing in darkness lets us see what your brain does when it cannot rely on vision. This helps us find hidden imbalances in the vestibular system that often do not show up in normal eye exams.
OPK testing uses moving stripes to see how your brain handles visual motion. This is huge for people who feel dizzy, off, or overwhelmed in busy environments like stores, traffic, or scrolling on screens. If your brain is sensitive to motion, this test usually shows it clearly.
Many providers only use VNG to look for obvious nystagmus and use that as the main qualifying factor for whether something is wrong. The reality is you can have significant balance and brain based issues even when no strong nystagmus is present. That is why we look at the full pattern of eye movement behavior, not just one finding.
All of this helps us figure out not just if something is off, but where in the brain and balance system the problem is coming from so we can target your rehab more precisely.
Tapping and Timing Assessment
The tapping assessment looks at how well your brain can keep time and switch between sides of the body. You will tap to a steady beat with one hand, the other hand, and then both alternating.
This gives us insight into how well different parts of your brain are communicating and how efficiently your nervous system processes timing and rhythm.
Timing is a big deal for the brain. It affects coordination, attention, balance, and even how quickly you recover from symptoms. When timing is off, everything can feel harder and more exhausting.
This test helps us spot subtle issues that do not show up on imaging but can still have a big impact on how you feel day to day.
Vestibular / Brain Rehab Exercises
Understanding the Vestibular System
Your vestibular system is your balance and spatial awareness system. It tells your brain where your head and body are in space and how you are moving through your environment.
It is made up of two main parts: the semicircular canals, which sense rotation, and the otolith organs, which sense linear movement and head position relative to gravity.
The otoliths are especially important because they never shut off. Even when you are sitting still, they are constantly sending information to your brain about where you are in space.
If the otoliths are not working correctly, your brain can feel unsafe even when nothing is actually wrong. This can drive symptoms like dizziness, motion sensitivity, visual issues, anxiety, and feeling off or disconnected.
Because this system is always active, small problems here can have a big impact on how your entire nervous system feels and functions.