Torsional vestibulo-ocular reflex during whole-body oscillation in the upright and the supine position. I. Responses in healthy human subjects.

Abstract

In rhesus monkeys, the dynamic properties of the torsional vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) are modified by otolith input: compared with torsional oscillations about an earth-vertical axis (canal-only stimulation), the phase lead observed at frequencies below 0.1 Hz is cancelled when the animals are rotated about an earth-horizontal axis (canal-and-otolith stimulation); the gains of the torsional VOR, however, are nearly identical in both conditions. To test whether or not canal-otolith interaction in humans is similar to that in rhesus monkeys, we examined ten healthy human subjects on a three-axis servo-controlled motor-driven turntable. The subjects were oscillated in upright or supine position in complete darkness over a similarly wide range of frequencies (0.05-1.0 Hz) with peak velocities <40 degrees/s. Eye movements were recorded using the three-dimensional search coil technique. Compared with the torsional vestibulo-ocular gains during canal-stimulation only (earth-vertical axis), the gains obtained during combined canal-otolith-stimulation (earth-horizontal axis) were significantly higher throughout the entire frequency range (P<0.05). The gain increased by 0.100+/-0.074 (SD), independent of frequency. During the earth-horizontal axis stimulation, the phase remained always around zero, which is in contrast to the canal-stimulation only, during which one finds an increasing phase lead as frequency decreases. We conclude that, in healthy humans as in rhesus monkeys, the phase lead from the canal signals at low frequencies is effectively cancelled by the otolith input. In contrast to rhesus monkeys, however, otolith signals in healthy humans increase the gain of the torsional VOR at frequencies from 0.05 to 1.0 Hz. This normal database is crucial for the interpretation of results obtained in patients with vestibular disorders.