Influence of Visual, Vestibular, Cervical, and Somatosensory Tilt Information on Ocular Rotation and Perception of the Horizontal

Article type: Research Article

Authors: de Graaf, Bernd^{a; *} | Bekkering, Harold^a | Erasmus, Corrie^b | Bles, Willem^{a; b}

Affiliations: [a] TNO Institute for Perception, Soesterberg, The Netherlands | [b] Free University Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Note: [*] Reprint address: Bernd de Graaf, TNO Institute for Perception, P.O. Box 23, 3769 ZG Soesterberg, The Netherlands.

Abstract: By combining a tilting chair and a tilting room we investigated the subjective horizontal (SH) and ocular counterrotation (OCR) as a function of body tilt, trunk tilt, and tilt of a visual frame. Significant influences of (isolated or combined) vestibular and visual information were found, but no influence of neck proprioception. A second and similar experiment, however, now conducted with subjects devoid of labyrinthine function, suggested a contribution of the neck as well as of somatosensory origin. This made a reinter-pretation of our data for normal subjects possible.

Keywords: multisensory tilt information, subjective horizontal, ocular counterrotation

DOI: 10.3233/VES-1992-2102

Journal: Journal of Vestibular Research, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 15-30, 1992