Context-specific adaptation and its significance for neurovestibular problems of space flight.
It has been demonstrated that various vestibular and oculomotor responses can be adapted in a context-specific manner: different adapted states are associated with different states of a prevailing context cue, and a change in the context state triggers a change in the response such that each adapted state is associated with a given context state. We review selected literature on context-specific adaptation, including our own recent results on adaptation of saccades, pursuit, and the linear and angular vestibulo-ocular reflexes (LVOR and AVOR), and suggest some ways in which context-specific adaptation might be useful as a countermeasure to the adverse neurovestibular effects of space flight.
Shelhamer
Mark
M
Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. mjs@dizzy.med.jhu.edu
Zee
David S
DS
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D009424:Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; D011698:Pursuit, Smooth / Q000502:physiology; D012027:Reflex, Vestibulo-Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology; D013026:Space Flight; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000502:physiology*