Interaction of vestibular and proprioceptive inputs for human self-motion perception.
Human perception of horizontal self(body)-motion in space was studied during various combinations of vestibular and leg-proprioceptive stimuli in the dark. During sinusoidal rotations of the trunk relative to the stationary feet (functionally synergistic combination) the perception was almost veridical over the frequency range tested (0.025-0.4 Hz). This finding suggested a dominance of the proprioceptive over the vestibular input, since the quantitative aspects of the perception (gain, phase, and detection threshold): (a) closely resembled those of the proprioceptive foot-to-trunk perception, and (b) clearly differed from those of the vestibular self-motion perception. However, when using other combinations, the self-motion perception changed in a monotonous way as a function of the two inputs, indicating that the two inputs do interact in a linear way. In a model of these findings the interaction occurs in two stages: (1) summation of a vestibular trunk-in-space signal and a (dynamically matched) proprioceptive foot-to-trunk signal yields an internal representation of foot support motion in space; (2) superposition of the latter by an almost ideal proprioceptive trunk-to-foot signal results in a representation of trunk-in-space motion (essentially proprioception-dependent and ideal when the feet are stationary).
Hlavacka
F
F
Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology, Slovak Academy of Science, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.
Mergner
T
T
Schweigart
G
G
D005528:Foot; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg; D009068:Movement; D010465:Perception; D011434:Proprioception / Q000502:physiology*; D012399:Rotation; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000502:physiology*