*Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Boston University Medical Center; and †Jenks Vestibular Physiology Lab, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Otol Neurotol. 2014 Jun;35(5):857-60. doi: 10.1097/MAO.0000000000000346.
Visual and vestibular cues provide complementary information about spatial orientation.
A previous study we performed showed that visual and vestibular cues are fused when the brain judges the roll-tilt direction. However, it was unclear if the motion perception threshold measured in visual-vestibular conditions will be better than visual or vestibular thresholds at high frequencies.
An innovative method of vestibular evaluation, the measurement of vestibular thresholds, was used. We used a Moog mobile platform with dedicated software. Four subjects were tested at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 Hz with adaptively decreasing amplitude. Subjects were asked to indicate the direction of motion in three conditions: vestibular only, subjects roll tilted in the dark; visual only, a visual scene was tilted in front of the subjects; and combined visual + vestibular, subjects rotated while watching a stationary visual scene. For each subject, we calculated the percentage difference between the threshold for combined visual/vestibular stimuli and the best of either the vestibular or visual threshold.
Visual and vestibular thresholds significantly differed in function of frequency.
Vestibular and visual thresholds at different frequencies are significantly different, which support the fact that they use different perception pathways. The brain may determine the body motion in space during roll tilt motion by integration of vestibular and visual inputs: the combined estimate of motion is better than the vestibular input and is not significantly better than the visual cues alone. This research may be useful in the workup of vertiginous disorders with impaired integration of vestibular and visual cues (motion sickness and migraine dizziness).
视觉和前庭线索提供了关于空间方向的互补信息。
我们之前的研究表明，当大脑判断滚转倾斜方向时，视觉和前庭线索会融合。然而，目前尚不清楚在视觉-前庭条件下测量的运动感知阈值是否会优于高频时的视觉或前庭阈值。
使用一种创新的前庭评估方法，即测量前庭阈值。我们使用了带有专用软件的 Moog 移动平台。4 名受试者在 1、2、3、4 和 5 Hz 下进行测试，幅度逐渐减小。在三种条件下，受试者被要求指示运动方向：仅前庭，受试者在黑暗中滚转倾斜；仅视觉，在受试者面前倾斜一个视觉场景；以及视觉+前庭组合，受试者在观看静止的视觉场景时旋转。对于每个受试者，我们计算了组合视觉/前庭刺激的阈值与最佳前庭或视觉阈值之间的百分比差异。
视觉和前庭阈值随频率显著不同。
不同频率的前庭和视觉阈值有显著差异，这支持了它们使用不同感知途径的事实。大脑可能通过整合前庭和视觉输入来确定在滚转倾斜运动期间身体在空间中的运动：运动的综合估计优于前庭输入，且不比单独的视觉线索好很多。这项研究可能对伴有前庭和视觉线索整合受损的眩晕障碍（运动病和偏头痛性眩晕）的检查有用。
