title: Vestibular and oculomotor influences on visual dependency.
abstract: The degree to which a person relies on visual stimuli for spatial orientation is termed visual dependency (VD). VD is considered a perceptual trait or cognitive style influenced by psychological factors and mediated by central reweighting of the sensory inputs involved in spatial orientation. VD is often measured with the rod-and-disk test, in which participants align a central rod to the subjective visual vertical (SVV) in the presence of a background that is either stationary or rotating around the line of sight-dynamic SVV. Although this task has been employed to assess VD in health and vestibular disease, what effect torsional nystagmic eye movements may have on individual performance is unknown. Using caloric ear irrigation, 3D video-oculography, and the rod-and-disk test, we show that caloric torsional nystagmus modulates measures of VD and demonstrate that increases in tilt after irrigation are positively correlated with changes in ocular torsional eye movements. When the direction of the slow phase of the torsional eye movement induced by the caloric is congruent with that induced by the rotating visual stimulus, there is a significant increase in tilt. When these two torsional components are in opposition, there is a decrease. These findings show that measures of VD can be influenced by oculomotor responses induced by caloric stimulation. The findings are of significance for clinical studies, as they indicate that VD, which often increases in vestibular disorders, is modulated not only by changes in cognitive style but also by eye movements, in particular nystagmus.
authors.affiliation: Neuro-otology Unit, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom; ed.roberts@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: R Edward
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3656-5906
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.affiliation: Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil; and.
authors.forename: Mariane
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Da Silva Melo
authors.affiliation: Neuro-otology Unit, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Aazim A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Siddiqui
authors.affiliation: Neuro-otology Unit, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Qadeer
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Arshad
authors.affiliation: Neuro-otology Unit, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom; School of Biosciences, University of East London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Mitesh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Patel
mesh_terms: D004423:Ear; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005133:Eye Movements; D006801:Humans; D009949:Orientation; D010812:Physical Stimulation; D011434:Proprioception; D011601:Psychophysics; D013028:Space Perception; D013037:Spatial Behavior; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: field dependence-independence; ocular torsion; subjective visual vertical; vestibular activation; visual dependency