title: Self-motion direction discrimination in the visually impaired.
abstract: Despite the close interrelation between vestibular and visual processing (e.g., vestibulo-ocular reflex), surprisingly little is known about vestibular function in visually impaired people. In this study, we investigated thresholds of passive whole-body motion discrimination (leftward vs. rightward) in nine visually impaired participants and nine age-matched sighted controls. Participants were rotated in yaw, tilted in roll, and translated along the interaural axis at two different frequencies (0.33 and 2 Hz) by means of a motion platform. Superior performance of visually impaired participants was found in the 0.33 Hz roll tilt condition. No differences were observed in the other motion conditions. Roll tilts stimulate the semicircular canals and otoliths simultaneously. The results could thus reflect a specific improvement in canal-otolith integration in the visually impaired and are consistent with the compensatory hypothesis, which implies that the visually impaired are able to compensate the absence of visual input.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, Bern, 3012, Switzerland. ivan.moser@psy.unibe.ch.|Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, Bern, 3012, Switzerland. ivan.moser@psy.unibe.ch.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Moser
authors.affiliation: Sansom Institute for Health Research, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia.
authors.forename: Luzia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grabherr
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, Bern, 3012, Switzerland.|Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, Bern, 3012, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, Bern, 3012, Switzerland.|Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, Bern, 3012, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Fred W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Mast
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009038:Motion; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D011601:Psychophysics; D012399:Rotation; D012649:Self Concept; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Body motion; Psychophysics; Self-motion perception; Sensory threshold; Vestibular; Visual impairment