title: Vestibular labyrinth contributions to human whole-body motion discrimination.
abstract: To assess the contributions of the vestibular system to whole-body motion discrimination in the dark, we measured direction recognition thresholds as a function of frequency for yaw rotation, superior-inferior translation ("z-translation"), interaural translation ("y-translation"), and roll tilt for 14 normal subjects and for 3 patients following total bilateral vestibular ablation. The patients had significantly higher average threshold measurements than normal (p < 0.01) for yaw rotation (depending upon frequency, 5.4× to 15.7× greater), z-translation (8.3× to 56.8× greater), y-translation (1.7× to 4.5× greater), and roll tilt (1.3× to 3.0× greater)--establishing the predominant contributions of the vestibular system for these motions in the dark.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otology and Laryngology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Yulia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Valko
authors.forename: Richard F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: Adrian J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Priesol
authors.forename: Daniel M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Merfeld
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009038:Motion; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D015837:Vestibular Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000502:physiology*