Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon.
School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.
J Neurophysiol. 2020 Mar 1;123(3):936-944. doi: 10.1152/jn.00307.2019. Epub 2020 Jan 15.
Recent evidence has shown that auditory information may be used to improve postural stability, spatial orientation, navigation, and gait, suggesting an auditory component of self-motion perception. To determine how auditory and other sensory cues integrate for self-motion perception, we measured motion perception during yaw rotations of the body and the auditory environment. Psychophysical thresholds in humans were measured over a range of frequencies (0.1-1.0 Hz) during self-rotation without spatial auditory stimuli, rotation of a sound source around a stationary listener, and self-rotation in the presence of an earth-fixed sound source. Unisensory perceptual thresholds and the combined multisensory thresholds were found to be frequency dependent. Auditory thresholds were better at lower frequencies, and vestibular thresholds were better at higher frequencies. Expressed in terms of peak angular velocity, multisensory vestibular and auditory thresholds ranged from 0.39°/s at 0.1 Hz to 0.95°/s at 1.0 Hz and were significantly better over low frequencies than either the auditory-only (0.54°/s to 2.42°/s at 0.1 and 1.0 Hz, respectively) or vestibular-only (2.00°/s to 0.75°/s at 0.1 and 1.0 Hz, respectively) unisensory conditions. Monaurally presented auditory cues were less effective than binaural cues in lowering multisensory thresholds. Frequency-independent thresholds were derived, assuming that vestibular thresholds depended on a weighted combination of velocity and acceleration cues, whereas auditory thresholds depended on displacement and velocity cues. These results elucidate fundamental mechanisms for the contribution of audition to balance and help explain previous findings, indicating its significance in tasks requiring self-orientation. Auditory information can be integrated with visual, proprioceptive, and vestibular signals to improve balance, orientation, and gait, but this process is poorly understood. Here, we show that auditory cues significantly improve sensitivity to self-motion perception below 0.5 Hz, whereas vestibular cues contribute more at higher frequencies. Motion thresholds are determined by a weighted combination of displacement, velocity, and acceleration information. These findings may help understand and treat imbalance, particularly in people with sensory deficits.
最近的证据表明，听觉信息可用于改善姿势稳定性、空间定向、导航和步态，这表明自我运动感知存在听觉成分。为了确定听觉和其他感觉线索如何整合以进行自我运动感知，我们测量了身体和听觉环境在横摇旋转过程中的运动感知。在没有空间听觉刺激的情况下，我们在人类的一系列频率（0.1-1.0 Hz）上测量了自我旋转时的运动感知阈值，测量了声源在静止听众周围的旋转以及存在固定声源时的自我旋转。发现单感觉和联合多感觉阈值都与频率有关。听觉阈值在较低频率下更好，而前庭阈值在较高频率下更好。以峰值角速度表示，多感觉前庭和听觉阈值范围从 0.1 Hz 时的 0.39°/s 到 1.0 Hz 时的 0.95°/s，在低频下明显优于仅听觉（0.1 和 1.0 Hz 时分别为 0.54°/s 至 2.42°/s）或仅前庭（0.1 和 1.0 Hz 时分别为 2.00°/s 至 0.75°/s）的单感觉条件。单耳呈现的听觉线索比双耳呈现的听觉线索在降低多感觉阈值方面效果更差。假设前庭阈值取决于速度和加速度线索的加权组合，而听觉阈值取决于位移和速度线索，我们得出了频率无关的阈值。这些结果阐明了听觉对平衡的贡献的基本机制，并有助于解释以前的发现，表明其在需要自我定向的任务中的重要性。听觉信息可以与视觉、本体感觉和前庭信号相结合，以改善平衡、定向和步态，但这个过程还不太清楚。在这里，我们表明，听觉线索在低于 0.5 Hz 时显著提高了自我运动感知的敏感性，而前庭线索在更高频率时贡献更大。运动阈值由位移、速度和加速度信息的加权组合决定。这些发现可能有助于理解和治疗失衡，特别是在有感觉缺陷的人。
