Enhancement of Vestibular Motion Discrimination by Small Stochastic Whole-body Perturbations in Young Healthy Humans

Scaleia, Barbara La; Lacquaniti, Francesco; Zago, Myrka

doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2022.12.010

Cited by 2 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Noisy broadband GVS has been shown to ameliorate vestibular perception ( 131–135 ), as well as other vestibular-mediated responses such as ocular counter-rolling ( 136 ), balance ( 133 , 137–139 ), vestibulo-spinal reflexes ( 135 ), mobility ( 140 ), locomotion ( 134 , 141 ), and cross-modal visual perception ( 142 ). The effects on performance generally follow the nonlinear trend observed by ( 15 ) using mechanical noise, i.e., optimal GVS amplitude coincides with low-to-intermediate noise levels. As in the case of mechanical perturbations, also for GVS the optimal stimulus amplitude and the extent of performance improvement are quite variable across individuals [e.g., ( 137–139 , 143 )].…”

Section: Perceptual Effects Of Externally Applied Noisy Stimulisupporting

confidence: 55%

“…Strong (about 140 cm/s 2 peak acceleration) vertical whole-body oscillations (6 Hz) significantly increased (almost doubled) horizontal heading-direction thresholds ( 16 ). On the other hand, weak (between about 3 and 6 cm/s 2 RMS) whole-body oscillations in the antero-posterior direction significantly decreased the thresholds of motion discrimination in the same direction as the perturbations ( 15 ).…”

Section: Perceptual Effects Of Externally Applied Noisy Stimulimentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Overlaid line is the best fit of the population data with Equation 9 of stochastic resonance. Data from La Scaleia et al ( 15 ).…”

Section: Perceptual Effects Of Externally Applied Noisy Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The effects of extrinsic noise on vestibular function have been reviewed above (see section 7). As a visualization aid to compare the results with stochastic resonance behavior, Equation 9 prediction is overlaid on the population results of vestibular motion discrimination in the presence of mechanical noise in Figure 5F ( 15 ). It has been argued that, at threshold, the perceptual discrimination of motion direction in a two-alternative forced-choice task [such as that of La Scaleia et al ( 15 )] involves a bistable potential well (see section 8.1): one well corresponds to perception of motion in one direction, and the other well perception of motion in the opposite direction ( 165 ).…”

Section: Stochastic Resonance and Related Phenomenamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Extrinsic noise can also be applied during experimental or clinical manipulations to stimulate the vestibular system. This is the case of the random mechanical vibrations of the head and body ( 15 , 16 ), air-conducted sound associated with loud clicks or tone bursts ( 17 , 18 ), bone-conducted vibrational waves ( 17 , 19 , 20 ), percutaneous application of galvanic currents at the mastoids ( 21 , 22 ), irrigation of cold or warm water or gas injection into the external auditory canal ( 23 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Noise and vestibular perception of passive self-motion

2023

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Noise defined as random disturbances is ubiquitous in both the external environment and the nervous system. Depending on the context, noise can degrade or improve information processing and performance. In all cases, it contributes to neural systems dynamics. We review some effects of various sources of noise on the neural processing of self-motion signals at different stages of the vestibular pathways and the resulting perceptual responses. Hair cells in the inner ear reduce the impact of noise by means of mechanical and neural filtering. Hair cells synapse on regular and irregular afferents. Variability of discharge (noise) is low in regular afferents and high in irregular units. The high variability of irregular units provides information about the envelope of naturalistic head motion stimuli. A subset of neurons in the vestibular nuclei and thalamus are optimally tuned to noisy motion stimuli that reproduce the statistics of naturalistic head movements. In the thalamus, variability of neural discharge increases with increasing motion amplitude but saturates at high amplitudes, accounting for behavioral violation of Weber’s law. In general, the precision of individual vestibular neurons in encoding head motion is worse than the perceptual precision measured behaviorally. However, the global precision predicted by neural population codes matches the high behavioral precision. The latter is estimated by means of psychometric functions for detection or discrimination of whole-body displacements. Vestibular motion thresholds (inverse of precision) reflect the contribution of intrinsic and extrinsic noise to perception. Vestibular motion thresholds tend to deteriorate progressively after the age of 40 years, possibly due to oxidative stress resulting from high discharge rates and metabolic loads of vestibular afferents. In the elderly, vestibular thresholds correlate with postural stability: the higher the threshold, the greater is the postural imbalance and risk of falling. Experimental application of optimal levels of either galvanic noise or whole-body oscillations can ameliorate vestibular function with a mechanism reminiscent of stochastic resonance. Assessment of vestibular thresholds is diagnostic in several types of vestibulopathies, and vestibular stimulation might be useful in vestibular rehabilitation.

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Section: Perceptual Effects Of Externally Applied Noisy Stimulisupporting

confidence: 55%

Section: Perceptual Effects Of Externally Applied Noisy Stimulimentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Overlaid line is the best fit of the population data with Equation 9 of stochastic resonance. Data from La Scaleia et al ( 15 ).…”

Section: Perceptual Effects Of Externally Applied Noisy Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Stochastic Resonance and Related Phenomenamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Noise and vestibular perception of passive self-motion

2023

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Head-centric computing for vestibular stimulation under head-free conditions

La Scaleia,

Brunetti,

Lacquaniti

et al. 2023

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

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Background: The vestibular end organs (semicircular canals, saccule and utricle) monitor head orientation and motion. Vestibular stimulation by means of controlled translations, rotations or tilts of the head represents a routine manoeuvre to test the vestibular apparatus in a laboratory or clinical setting. In diagnostics, it is used to assess oculomotor postural or perceptual responses, whose abnormalities can reveal subclinical vestibular dysfunctions due to pathology, aging or drugs.Objective: The assessment of the vestibular function requires the alignment of the motion stimuli as close as possible with reference axes of the head, for instance the cardinal axes naso-occipital, interaural, cranio-caudal. This is often achieved by using a head restraint, such as a helmet or strap holding the head tightly in a predefined posture that guarantees the alignment described above. However, such restraints may be quite uncomfortable, especially for elderly or claustrophobic patients. Moreover, it might be desirable to test the vestibular function under the more natural conditions in which the head is free to move, as when subjects are tracking a visual target or they are standing erect on the moving platform. Here, we document algorithms that allow delivering motion stimuli aligned with head-fixed axes under head-free conditions.Methods: We implemented and validated these algorithms using a MOOG-6DOF motion platform in two different conditions. 1) The participant kept the head in a resting, fully unrestrained posture, while inter-aural, naso-occipital or cranio-caudal translations were applied. 2) The participant moved the head continuously while a naso-occipital translation was applied. Head and platform motion were monitored in real-time using Vicon.Results: The results for both conditions showed excellent agreement between the theoretical spatio-temporal profile of the motion stimuli and the corresponding profile of actual motion as measured in real-time.Conclusion: We propose our approach as a safe, non-intrusive method to test the vestibular system under the natural head-free conditions required by the experiential perspective of the patients.

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Enhancement of Vestibular Motion Discrimination by Small Stochastic Whole-body Perturbations in Young Healthy Humans

Cited by 2 publications

References 84 publications

Noise and vestibular perception of passive self-motion

Noise and vestibular perception of passive self-motion

Head-centric computing for vestibular stimulation under head-free conditions

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