Angular and linear vestibulo-ocular responses in humans.

A new technique is introduced to measure linear and angular vestibulo-ocular responses in three dimensions. Using a three-dimensional motion platform, human subjects underwent whole-body rotations and translations. Eye movements were measured with an infrared video recording device and/or with scleral search coils. Subjects were tested with sinusoidal stimulation and impulses under light and dark conditions. The results show that for sinusoidal stimulation, torsion compensatory eye movements (roll stimulation) have a low gain compared to horizontal (yaw) and vertical (pitch) compensatory eye movements. With impulses, we reliably assessed gain and delay for rotations in yaw, pitch, and roll. Under this stimulus condition the gain for roll (torsion eye movements) was also low compared to yaw and pitch (horizontal and vertical eye movements). For translations, the gain of eye-movement responses varied between 0.7 and 1 in the light. In the dark, responses were lower and more variable.