Dissociation between subjective vertical and subjective body orientation elicited by galvanic vestibular stimulation

Abstract

Previous studies demonstrated that sensory stimulation could differentially affect the subjective vertical (SV) and the subjective body orientation (SBO). This suggests that the central nervous system elaborates various references of verticality in function of the task demands and of the available sensory information. In this study, we tested whether the dissociation between SV and SBO appears for a selective stimulation of the vestibular system, by using galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS). Seated subjects performed vertical settings by controlling the orientation of a visual rod during GVS. Subjects were also instructed to evaluate the orientation of the head and trunk relative to gravity. The results revealed a large variability in the way SV and SBO were affected. In all cases, the effect of GVS on SV was not a mirror image of a distorted SBO. We propose that this dissociation is mainly determined by central processes involved in the estimation of sensory cues reliability. GVS also yielded a tilt of the head when the head was unrestrained. The results suggest that changes in actual head orientation yielded by GVS may be related to the perceived direction of gravity but cannot be explained by a compensation of an illusory orientation of the head.