An experimental study of dizziness.

Abstract

In brief, this is our present problem, (a) What are the mental processes aroused during stimulation of the end-organs of the semicircular canals and what is their relative significance to the experience of rotation as a whole? And (b) what effect will continued repetition and other factors have upon these mental processes? Our method of experimentation involves periodic repetition. In each trial our subjects were revolved ten times. There were ten successive trials taken each day for a considerable number of days. Introspective reports were called for after each trial. We have found the experience of dizziness or vertigo to be made up of a large number of processes the most prominent of which are (1) kinesthesis from the eyes and neck and in the arms, (2) pressure from the region of the abdominal viscera, the chest and head, and (3) certain vascular processes which supply an obscure background and which give to the whole experience a characteristic shading. We have found, moreover, that the whole experience of dizziness becomes less complex and less intensive under periodic repetition. Nowhere have we been able to discover a process which could be called a 'sensation of rotation' or a 'sensation of movement.' As a result of our analysis, we are warranted in speaking only of the perception of movement. Furthermore, we are justified not only in saying that all of the mental processes resulting from rotation may be modified by a variety of physical and physiological factors, but also that certain mental factors modify all of the results of rotation, both organic and mental. That is to say, the organic and mental effects of rotation are an integrated group of events highly sensitive in their appearance and duration to the direction of attention, psychophysical determination, the character of the visual field, and the mode of ocular fixation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)