Association between vestibular function and rotational spatial orientation perception in older adults

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Spatial orientation is a complex process involving vestibular sensory input and possibly cognitive ability. Previous research demonstrated that rotational spatial orientation was worse for individuals with profound bilateral vestibular dysfunction. OBJECTIVE: Determine whether rotational and linear vestibular function were independently associated with large amplitude rotational spatial orientation perception in healthy aging. METHODS: Tests of rotational spatial orientation accuracy and vestibular function [vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), ocular and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP)] were administered to 272 healthy community-dwelling adults participating in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Using a mixed model multiple linear regression we regressed spatial orientation errors on lateral semicircular canal function, utricular function (ocular VEMP), and saccular function (cervical VEMP) in a single model controlling for rotation size, age, and sex. RESULTS: After adjusting for age, and sex, individuals with bilaterally low VOR gain (β= 20.9, p = 0.014) and those with bilaterally absent utricular function (β= 9.32, p = 0.017) made significantly larger spatial orientation errors relative to individuals with normal vestibular function. CONCLUSIONS: The current results demonstrate for the first time that either bilateral lateral semicircular canal dysfunction or bilateral utricular dysfunction are associated with worse rotational spatial orientation. We also demonstrated in a healthy aging cohort that increased age also contributes to spatial orientation ability.

Anxiety and Motion Sickness Susceptibility May Influence the Ability to Update Orientation in the Horizontal Plane of Healthy Subjects

“…In agreement with previous reports using the same or a similar orientation task ( Israël et al, 1995 ; Marlinsky, 1999 ; Jáuregui-Renaud et al, 2008 ; Anson et al, 2021 ), in this study, over-estimation of rotation was more frequent than underestimation. The orientation test design included rotations of increasing amplitude/duration, this allowed overestimation of duration to be easily interpreted as increased amplitude, which could give rise to overestimation errors.…”

“…In agreement with previous reports (Jáuregui-Renaud et al, 2008;Anson et al, 2021), the analysis of this study showed no independent influence of sex on updating orientation after passive rotations in the horizontal plane. This finding was consistent with the observed lack of influence of physical activity on the performance of the orientation test, given that men reported more physical activity than women.…”

“…Young and middle-aged adults showed similar results on the orientation test, despite clear differences on the motion sickness susceptibility scores. These findings support that the decline in spatial orientation that has been observed in the elderly could be attributed to factors that may develop late in life ( Anson et al, 2021 ), but may not be evident yet in young and middle-aged subjects ( Jáuregui-Renaud et al, 2008 ).…”

“…The accuracy to judge angular displacements is highly variable among healthy subjects ( Guedry et al, 1971 ), and overestimation of rotation is more frequent than underestimation ( Israël et al, 1995 ; Marlinsky, 1999 ; Jáuregui-Renaud et al, 2008 ; Anson et al, 2021 ). It may decrease in old age ( Anson et al, 2021 ), but other individual factors are poorly documented.…”

“…The accuracy to judge angular displacements is highly variable among healthy subjects ( Guedry et al, 1971 ), and overestimation of rotation is more frequent than underestimation ( Israël et al, 1995 ; Marlinsky, 1999 ; Jáuregui-Renaud et al, 2008 ; Anson et al, 2021 ). It may decrease in old age ( Anson et al, 2021 ), but other individual factors are poorly documented. We designed a study to assess the influence of individual factors on the vestibular contribution to update orientation, after passive rotations in the horizontal plane in young and middle-aged adults.…”