Unilateral vestibular deafferentation produces no long-term effects on human active eye-head coordination

R A Black; G M Halmagyi; I S Curthoys; M J Thurtell; A E Brizuela

doi:10.1007/s002210050524

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Unilateral vestibular deafferentation produces no long-term effects on human active eye-head coordination

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Unilateral vestibular deafferentation produces no long-term effects on human active eye-head coordination

R A Black, G M Halmagyi, I S Curthoys, M J Thurtell and A E Brizuela

Experimental brain research, Vol.122(3), pp.362-366

10/1998

DOI: 10.1007/s002210050524

PMID: 9808309

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Abstract

We tested the hypothesis that the reason some patients compensate well after unilateral vestibular deafferentation (uVD) and others do not could be due to differences in eye-head coordination or in blink characteristics during natural, active head movements. Patients with well-compensated uVDs do not report distressing postural unsteadiness or an aversive sensation of apparent motion of a visual scene (oscillopsia) or "visual confusion" upon rapid head rotation as do those patients with poorly compensated uVDs. It has been suggested that well-compensated subjects eliminate the subjective sensations associated with retinal slip, which must occur as a result of an inadequate vestibuloocular reflex (VOR), either by restricting head movement to the lesioned side or by blinking during head turns. To test this, subjects stood at the curbside of a busy road with a 180 degrees view of regular, fast-moving traffic, which they scanned in preparation of crossing the road, and their eye and head movements and blinks were measured in this natural situation. Both normals and uVDs generated similar ranges of head position, head velocity and gaze magnitude, and all subjects performed a blink during the gaze saccade. Contrary to the hypothesis, no systematic differences were found between normals and either group of uVDs.

Reflex, Vestibulo-Ocular - physiology

Humans

Middle Aged

Vestibular Nerve - surgery

Fixation, Ocular - physiology

Adult

Aged

Vestibular Nerve - physiology

Psychomotor Performance - physiology

Blinking - physiology

Denervation

Head - physiology

Details

Title: Subtitle: Unilateral vestibular deafferentation produces no long-term effects on human active eye-head coordination
Creators: R A Black - Department of Neurology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia. rossb@icn.su.OZ.AU
G M Halmagyi
I S Curthoys
M J Thurtell
A E Brizuela
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Experimental brain research, Vol.122(3), pp.362-366
Publisher: Germany
DOI: 10.1007/s002210050524
PMID: 9808309
ISSN: 0014-4819
eISSN: 1432-1106
Language: English
Date published: 10/1998
Academic Unit: Neurology; Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
Record Identifier: 9983980388002771

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