title: Vestibulospinal control of posture.
abstract: To better understand the role of the vestibular system in postural coordination, we compared the ability of subjects with complete, bilateral loss of vestibular function and age-matched control subjects to maintain equilibrium and postural orientation during sinusoidal displacements of the support surface at a variety of frequencies. We also examined the ability of visual or somatosensory-light touch information to substitute for missing vestibular information in dynamic postural coordination. The results suggest that vestibular information is used as a gravitational reference frame to prevent slow drift of the trunk in space during complex postural tasks. Furthermore, visual information or somatosensory information from light touch of a finger on a stable reference can significantly substitute for loss of vestibular function.
authors.affiliation: Neurological Sciences Institute of Oregon Health Sciences University, Beaverton 97212, USA. horakf@ohsu.edu
authors.forename: Fay B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Horak
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Buchanan
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Creath
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jeka
mesh_terms: D006112:Gravitation; D006801:Humans; D004856:Postural Balance; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012399:Rotation; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology; D015837:Vestibular Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology
keywords: Non-programmatic