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Gammeri R, Villa MC, Ciorli T, Berti A, Ricci R. Beyond balance: The role of the Vestibular system in action recognition. Heliyon 2024; 10:e38019. [PMID: 39347395 PMCID: PMC11438003 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e38019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2024] [Revised: 09/14/2024] [Accepted: 09/16/2024] [Indexed: 10/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Action recognition is a fundamental aspect of human interaction. This process is mediated by the activation of shared sensorimotor representations during action execution and observation. Although complex movements involving balance or head and trunk rotations require vestibular signals for effective execution, their role in the recognition of others' actions is still unknown. Objective To investigate the causal involvement of the vestibular system in the discrimination of actions performed by others and whether this is influenced by motor familiarity. Methods In a single-blind design involving 25 healthy participants, Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) was administered during an Action Discrimination Task (ADT), in which videos of actions categorized as vestibular/non-vestibular and familiar/unfamiliar were presented. Following each video, participants were required to identify the climax of the previously viewed action between two image options, using a two-alternative forced choice paradigm. The ADT was performed in active and sham GVS conditions, with left or right anodal montages. Response Times (RTs), Accuracy, and subjective motor familiarity were recorded for each action category. Results In sham GVS condition, an overall familiarity effect was observed, where RTs for familiar actions were faster than RTs for unfamiliar ones, regardless of vestibular engagement (p < .001; ηp 2 = .80). Conversely, under active GVS, a selective interference of the identification of vestibular familiar actions was observed compared to sham. Specifically, GVS prolonged RTs for recognizing familiar vestibular actions (p = .004, d = .59) while concurrently enhancing visual sensitivity (d') for the same actions (p = .03, r = .21). Conclusion These findings demonstrate the contribution of the vestibular system to action recognition. GVS disrupted the sensorimotor representation of vestibular actions and led to increased reliance on an alternative processing system focused on visual analysis of limb positions. This dissociation provides valuable insights for future investigations into the complex relationship between vestibular signals and cognitive processes involved in action identification, essential for developing innovative GVS interventions, particularly for individuals with sensorimotor or vestibular disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roberto Gammeri
- SAN (Space, Attention and actioN) Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi, 10, Torino, 10124, Italy
| | - Maria-Chiara Villa
- BIP (BraIn Plasticity and Behaviour Changes) Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Italy
| | - Tommaso Ciorli
- SAMBA (SpAtial, Motor and Bodily Awareness) Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi 10, Torino, 10124, Italy
| | - Anna Berti
- SAN (Space, Attention and actioN) Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi, 10, Torino, 10124, Italy
- SAMBA (SpAtial, Motor and Bodily Awareness) Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi 10, Torino, 10124, Italy
| | - Raffaella Ricci
- SAN (Space, Attention and actioN) Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi, 10, Torino, 10124, Italy
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2
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Sharif M, Rea O, Burling R, Ellul Miraval M, Patel R, Saman Y, Rea P, Yoon HJ, Kheradmand A, Arshad Q. Migrainous vertigo impairs adaptive learning as a function of uncertainty. Front Neurol 2024; 15:1436127. [PMID: 39119559 PMCID: PMC11306035 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1436127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2024] [Accepted: 07/03/2024] [Indexed: 08/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Objective In this study, we examined whether vestibular migraine, as a source of increased perceptual uncertainty due to the associated dizziness, interferes with adaptive learning. Methods The IOWA gambling task (IGT) was used to assess adaptive learning in both healthy controls and patients with migraine-related dizziness. Participants were presented with four decks of cards (A, B, C, and D) and requested to select a card over 100 trials. Participants received a monetary reward or a penalty with equal probability when they selected a card. Card decks A and B (high-risk decks) involved high rewards (win £100) and high penalties (lose £250), whereas C and D (low-risk decks; favorable reward-to-punishment ratio) involved lower rewards (win £50) and penalties (lose £50). Task success required participants to decide (i.e., adaptively learn) through the feedback they received that C and D were the advantageous decks. Results The study revealed that patients with vestibular migraine selected more high-risk cards than the control group. Chronic vestibular migraine patients showed delayed improvement in task performance than those with acute presentation. Only in acute vestibular migraine patients, we observed that impaired learning positively correlated with measures of dizzy symptoms. Conclusion The findings of this study have clinical implications for how vestibular migraine can affect behavioural adaption in patients, either directly through altered perception or indirectly by impacting cognitive processes that can result in maladaptive behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mishaal Sharif
- inAmind Laboratory, College of Life Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
| | - Oliver Rea
- inAmind Laboratory, College of Life Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
| | - Rose Burling
- inAmind Laboratory, College of Life Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
| | - Mel Ellul Miraval
- inAmind Laboratory, College of Life Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
| | - Rakesh Patel
- Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, De Monfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom
| | - Yougan Saman
- inAmind Laboratory, College of Life Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
| | - Peter Rea
- E.N.T Department, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Balance Clinic, Leicester, United Kingdom
| | - Ha-Jun Yoon
- inAmind Laboratory, College of Life Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
| | - Amir Kheradmand
- Department of Neurology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Department of Neuroscience, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Qadeer Arshad
- inAmind Laboratory, College of Life Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
- Department of Brain Sciences, Centre for Vestibular Neurology, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
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3
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Jahromi MM, Vlček P, Kvašňák E, Lippertová MG. Posture enhancement with cerebellum transcranial electrical stimulation: a systematic review of current methods and findings. Exp Brain Res 2024; 242:991-1009. [PMID: 38546838 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-024-06808-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/13/2024] [Indexed: 07/13/2024]
Abstract
Recently, transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) has gained increasing popularity among researchers, especially for recovery and improvement, but interpretation of these results is difficult due to variations in study methods and outcome measurements. The main goal of this study was to better understand the postural and balance indicators affected by cerebellar tES, as the cerebellum is the main brain region responsible for controlling balance. For this systematic literature review, three databases were searched for articles where the cerebellum was stimulated by any type of tES in either healthy participants or those with neurologic disorders. Postural, dynamic, and/or static stability measurements were recorded, and risk of bias was assessed on the PEDro scale. A total of 21 studies were included in the analysis. 17 studies reported improvements after application of tES. 14 studies stimulated the cerebellum unilaterally and 15 used this modality for 20 min. Moreover, all studies exclusively used transcranial direct current as the type of stimulation. Evaluation of PEDro results showed that studies included in the analysis utilized good methodology. Although there were some inconsistencies in study results, overall, it was demonstrated that tES can improve balance and postural index under both healthy and neurological conditions. Further research of bilateral cerebellar stimulation or the use of transcranial alternating current stimulation, transcranial random noise stimulation, and transcranial pulsed current stimulation is needed for a more comprehensive assessment of the potential positive effects of cerebellar tES on the balance system.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Přemysl Vlček
- Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
- Applied Brain Electroencephalography, National Institute of Mental Health, Topolova 748, 25067, Klecany, Czech Republic.
| | - Eugen Kvašňák
- Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
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4
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van Helvert MJL, Selen LPJ, van Beers RJ, Medendorp WP. Predictive steering: integration of artificial motor signals in self-motion estimation. J Neurophysiol 2022; 128:1395-1408. [PMID: 36350058 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00248.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The brain's computations for active and passive self-motion estimation can be unified with a single model that optimally combines vestibular and visual signals with sensory predictions based on efference copies. It is unknown whether this theoretical framework also applies to the integration of artificial motor signals, such as those that occur when driving a car, or whether self-motion estimation in this situation relies on sole feedback control. Here, we examined if training humans to control a self-motion platform leads to the construction of an accurate internal model of the mapping between the steering movement and the vestibular reafference. Participants (n = 15) sat on a linear motion platform and actively controlled the platform's velocity using a steering wheel to translate their body to a memorized visual target (motion condition). We compared their steering behavior to that of participants (n = 15) who remained stationary and instead aligned a nonvisible line with the target (stationary condition). To probe learning, the gain between the steering wheel angle and the platform or line velocity changed abruptly twice during the experiment. These gain changes were virtually undetectable in the displacement error in the motion condition, whereas clear deviations were observed in the stationary condition, showing that participants in the motion condition made within-trial changes to their steering behavior. We conclude that vestibular feedback allows not only the online control of steering but also a rapid adaptation to the gain changes to update the brain's internal model of the mapping between the steering movement and the vestibular reafference.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Perception of self-motion is known to depend on the integration of sensory signals and, when the motion is self-generated, the predicted sensory reafference based on motor efference copies. Here we show, using a closed-loop steering experiment with a direct coupling between the steering movement and the vestibular self-motion feedback, that humans are also able to integrate artificial motor signals, like the motor signals that occur when driving a car.
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Affiliation(s)
- Milou J L van Helvert
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Luc P J Selen
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Robert J van Beers
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.,Department of Human Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - W Pieter Medendorp
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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5
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Chen A, Kuo C, Blouin JS. A portable and low-cost solution for real-time manipulation of the vestibular sense. J Neurosci Methods 2022; 382:109709. [PMID: 36116537 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2022.109709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2022] [Revised: 09/02/2022] [Accepted: 09/06/2022] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The vestibular system encodes head motion in space which is naturally accompanied by other sensory cues. Electrical stimuli, applied across the mastoid processes, selectively activate primary vestibular afferents which has spurred clinical and biomedical applications of electrical vestibular stimulation (EVS). When properly matched to head motion, EVS may also manipulate the closed-loop relationship between actions and vestibular feedback to reveal the mechanisms of sensorimotor recalibration and learning. NEW METHOD We designed a portable, low-cost real-time EVS system using an Arduino microcontroller programmed through Simulink that provides electrical currents based on head angular motion. We used well-characterized vestibular afferent physiological responses to head angular velocity and electrical current to compute head-motion equivalent of real-time modulatory EVS currents. We also examined if our system induced recalibration of the vestibular system during human balance control. RESULTS Our system operated at 199.997 Hz ( ± 0.005 Hz) and delivered head-motion-equivalent electrical currents with ∼10 ms delay. The output driving the current stimulator matched the implemented linear model for physiological vestibular afferent dynamics with minimal background noise (<0.2% of ± 10 V range). Participants recalibrated to the modulated closed-loop vestibular feedback using visual cues during standing balance, replicating earlier findings. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS EVS is typically used to impose external perturbations that are independent of one's own movement. We provided a solution using open-source hardware to implement a real-time, physiology based, and task-relevant vestibular modulations using EVS. CONCLUSIONS Our portable, low-cost vestibular modulation system will make physiological closed-loop vestibular manipulations more accessible thus encouraging novel investigations and biomedical applications of EVS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anthony Chen
- School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
| | - Calvin Kuo
- School of Biomedical Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
| | - Jean-Sébastien Blouin
- School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
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6
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Lele AS, Fang Y, Anwar A, Raychowdhury A. Bio-mimetic high-speed target localization with fused frame and event vision for edge application. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:1010302. [PMID: 36507348 PMCID: PMC9732385 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.1010302] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2022] [Accepted: 10/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Evolution has honed predatory skills in the natural world where localizing and intercepting fast-moving prey is required. The current generation of robotic systems mimics these biological systems using deep learning. High-speed processing of the camera frames using convolutional neural networks (CNN) (frame pipeline) on such constrained aerial edge-robots gets resource-limited. Adding more compute resources also eventually limits the throughput at the frame rate of the camera as frame-only traditional systems fail to capture the detailed temporal dynamics of the environment. Bio-inspired event cameras and spiking neural networks (SNN) provide an asynchronous sensor-processor pair (event pipeline) capturing the continuous temporal details of the scene for high-speed but lag in terms of accuracy. In this work, we propose a target localization system combining event-camera and SNN-based high-speed target estimation and frame-based camera and CNN-driven reliable object detection by fusing complementary spatio-temporal prowess of event and frame pipelines. One of our main contributions involves the design of an SNN filter that borrows from the neural mechanism for ego-motion cancelation in houseflies. It fuses the vestibular sensors with the vision to cancel the activity corresponding to the predator's self-motion. We also integrate the neuro-inspired multi-pipeline processing with task-optimized multi-neuronal pathway structure in primates and insects. The system is validated to outperform CNN-only processing using prey-predator drone simulations in realistic 3D virtual environments. The system is then demonstrated in a real-world multi-drone set-up with emulated event data. Subsequently, we use recorded actual sensory data from multi-camera and inertial measurement unit (IMU) assembly to show desired working while tolerating the realistic noise in vision and IMU sensors. We analyze the design space to identify optimal parameters for spiking neurons, CNN models, and for checking their effect on the performance metrics of the fused system. Finally, we map the throughput controlling SNN and fusion network on edge-compatible Zynq-7000 FPGA to show a potential 264 outputs per second even at constrained resource availability. This work may open new research directions by coupling multiple sensing and processing modalities inspired by discoveries in neuroscience to break fundamental trade-offs in frame-based computer vision.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashwin Sanjay Lele
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | - Yan Fang
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kennesaw State University, Marietta, GA, United States
| | - Aqeel Anwar
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | - Arijit Raychowdhury
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States
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7
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Parthasharathy M, Mantini D, Orban de Xivry JJ. Increased upper-limb sensory attenuation with age. J Neurophysiol 2021; 127:474-492. [PMID: 34936521 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00558.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The pressure of our own finger on the arm feels differently than the same pressure exerted by an external agent: the latter involves just touch, whereas the former involves a combination of touch and predictive output from the internal model of the body. This internal model predicts the movement of our own finger and hence the intensity of the sensation of the finger press is decreased. A decrease in intensity of the self-produced stimulus is called sensory attenuation. It has been reported that, due to decreased proprioception with age and an increased reliance on the prediction of the internal model, sensory attenuation is increased in older adults. In this study, we used a force-matching paradigm to test if sensory attenuation is also present over the arm and if aging increases sensory attenuation. We demonstrated that, while both young and older adults overestimate a self-produced force, older adults overestimate it even more showing an increased sensory attenuation. In addition, we also found that both younger and older adults self-produce higher forces when activating the homologous muscles of the upper limb. While this is traditionally viewed as evidence for an increased reliance on internal model function in older adults because of decreased proprioception, proprioception appeared unimpaired in our older participants. This begs the question of whether an age-related decrease in proprioception is really responsible for the increased sensory attenuation observed in older people.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manasa Parthasharathy
- Motor Control and Neuroplasticity Research group, Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Dante Mantini
- Motor Control and Neuroplasticity Research group, Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Brain Imaging and Neural Dynamics Research Group, IRCCS San Camillo Hospital, Venice, Italy
| | - Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry
- Motor Control and Neuroplasticity Research group, Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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8
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Koppelaar H, Kordestani-Moghadam P, Kouhkani S, Irandoust F, Segers G, de Haas L, Bantje T, van Warmerdam M. Proof of Concept of Novel Visuo-Spatial-Motor Fall Prevention Training for Old People. Geriatrics (Basel) 2021; 6:66. [PMID: 34210015 PMCID: PMC8293049 DOI: 10.3390/geriatrics6030066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2021] [Revised: 06/13/2021] [Accepted: 06/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Falls in the geriatric population are one of the most important causes of disabilities in this age group. Its consequences impose a great deal of economic burden on health and insurance systems. This study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team with the aim of evaluating the effect of visuo-spatial-motor training for the prevention of falls in older adults. The subjects consisted of 31 volunteers aged 60 to 92 years who were studied in three groups: (1) A group under standard physical training, (2) a group under visuo-spatial-motor interventions, and (3) a control group (without any intervention). The results of the study showed that visual-spatial motor exercises significantly reduced the risk of falls of the subjects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henk Koppelaar
- Faculty of Electric and Electronic Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands
| | | | - Sareh Kouhkani
- Department of Mathematics, Islamic University Shabestar Branch, Shabestar, Iran;
| | - Farnoosh Irandoust
- Department of Ophtalmology, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Korramabad, Iran;
| | - Gijs Segers
- Gymi Sports & Visual Performance, 4907 BC Oosterhout, The Netherlands;
| | - Lonneke de Haas
- Monné Physical Care and Exercise, 4815 HD Breda, The Netherlands; (L.d.H.); (T.B.)
| | - Thijmen Bantje
- Monné Physical Care and Exercise, 4815 HD Breda, The Netherlands; (L.d.H.); (T.B.)
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9
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Walston L, Martin C, Walston Z, Yake D. An irritability-based approach to whiplash-associated concussion rehabilitation: a case series. Physiother Theory Pract 2021; 38:3136-3145. [PMID: 34167435 DOI: 10.1080/09593985.2021.1938306] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND An estimated 45% of concussions are reported to be related to motor vehicle collisions (MVC). However, limited research exists involving the treatment of MVC-related concussion, especially when combined with whiplash-associated disorders (WAD). Purpose: The purpose of this case series is to examine the patient response to an irritability-based approach to the physiological, cervical, and vestibulo-ocular trajectories in patients with diagnosed concussion and WAD disorder following an MVC. Case Description: Three patients clinically diagnosed by a neurologist with WAD and concussion following a rear-end MVC were evaluated and treated in an outpatient physical therapy setting. Each individual was progressed through an irritability-based treatment approach based on individual symptom presentation. Outcomes: Following therapy, 2 of 3 patients reported full resolution of subjective symptoms with a negative Vestibular Oculo-motor Screening All patients exceeded their predicted goals based on Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes score. CONCLUSION This case series demonstrated successful treatment of all three individuals with concussion and concurrent WAD. Two of three individuals demonstrated full resolution of subjective symptoms and objective impairments at the end of treatment. Further research is warranted into the effectiveness of a multi-factorial approach to address the highly variable symptom profile of individuals with concussion and WAD.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Cara Martin
- PT Solutions Physical Therapy, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | | | - Dale Yake
- PT Solutions Physical Therapy, Atlanta, GA, USA
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10
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Lajoie K, Marigold DS, Valdés BA, Menon C. The potential of noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation for optimizing and assisting human performance. Neuropsychologia 2021; 152:107751. [PMID: 33434573 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107751] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2020] [Revised: 01/07/2021] [Accepted: 01/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation (nGVS) is an emerging non-invasive brain stimulation technique. It involves applying alternating currents of different frequencies and amplitudes presented in a random, or noisy, manner through electrodes on the mastoid bones behind the ears. Because it directly activates vestibular hair cells and afferents and has an indirect effect on a variety of brain regions, it has the potential to impact many different functions. The objective of this review is twofold: (1) to review how nGVS affects motor, sensory, and cognitive performance in healthy adults; and (2) to discuss potential clinical applications of nGVS. First, we introduce the technique. We then describe the regions receiving and processing vestibular information. Next, we discuss the effects of nGVS on motor, sensory, and cognitive function in healthy adults. Subsequently, we outline its potential clinical applications. Finally, we highlight other electrical stimulation technologies and discuss why nGVS offers an alternative or complementary approach. Overall, nGVS appears promising for optimizing human performance and as an assistive technology, though further research is required.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kim Lajoie
- Menrva Research Group, Schools of Mechatronic Systems Engineering and Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University, Metro Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Daniel S Marigold
- Sensorimotor Neuroscience Lab, Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
| | - Bulmaro A Valdés
- Menrva Research Group, Schools of Mechatronic Systems Engineering and Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University, Metro Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Carlo Menon
- Menrva Research Group, Schools of Mechatronic Systems Engineering and Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University, Metro Vancouver, BC, Canada.
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11
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Fukutomi M, Carlson BA. A History of Corollary Discharge: Contributions of Mormyrid Weakly Electric Fish. Front Integr Neurosci 2020; 14:42. [PMID: 32848649 PMCID: PMC7403230 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2020.00042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2020] [Accepted: 07/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Corollary discharge is an important brain function that allows animals to distinguish external from self-generated signals, which is critical to sensorimotor coordination. Since discovery of the concept of corollary discharge in 1950, neuroscientists have sought to elucidate underlying neural circuits and mechanisms. Here, we review a history of neurophysiological studies on corollary discharge and highlight significant contributions from studies using African mormyrid weakly electric fish. Mormyrid fish generate brief electric pulses to communicate with other fish and to sense their surroundings. In addition, mormyrids can passively locate weak, external electric signals. These three behaviors are mediated by different corollary discharge functions including inhibition, enhancement, and predictive “negative image” generation. Owing to several experimental advantages of mormyrids, investigations of these mechanisms have led to important general principles that have proven applicable to a wide diversity of animal species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matasaburo Fukutomi
- Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Bruce A Carlson
- Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
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12
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St-Amant G, Rahman T, Polskaia N, Fraser S, Lajoie Y. Unveilling the cerebral and sensory contributions to automatic postural control during dual-task standing. Hum Mov Sci 2020; 70:102587. [DOI: 10.1016/j.humov.2020.102587] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2019] [Revised: 01/24/2020] [Accepted: 01/28/2020] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
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13
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Laurens J, Angelaki DE. Simple spike dynamics of Purkinje cells in the macaque vestibulo-cerebellum during passive whole-body self-motion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:3232-3238. [PMID: 31988119 PMCID: PMC7022220 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1915873117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Theories of cerebellar functions posit that the cerebellum implements internal models for online correction of motor actions and sensory estimation. As an example of such computations, an internal model resolves a sensory ambiguity where the peripheral otolith organs in the inner ear sense both head tilts and translations. Here we exploit the response dynamics of two functionally coupled Purkinje cell types in the vestibular part of the caudal vermis (lobules IX and X) to understand their role in this computation. We find that one population encodes tilt velocity, whereas the other, translation-selective, population encodes linear acceleration. We predict that an intermediate neuronal type should temporally integrate the output of tilt-selective cells into a tilt position signal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean Laurens
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77056
| | - Dora E Angelaki
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77056;
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003
- Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, New York, NY 10003
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14
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Richer N, Lajoie Y. Automaticity of Postural Control while Dual-tasking Revealed in Young and Older Adults. Exp Aging Res 2019; 46:1-21. [PMID: 31744403 DOI: 10.1080/0361073x.2019.1693044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Background: Postural control improvements in external focus and cognitive task conditions are thought to occur because directing attention away from postural control allows greater automaticity. We aimed to support this theory by using three dynamic measures of postural control that may reveal changes in the structure or composition of sway: the discrete wavelet transform, sample entropy, and rambling trembling analyses.Methods: We analyzed the center of pressure data from twenty-two healthy young adults (20.8 ± 2.82 years) and twenty healthy older adults (69.02 ± 3.47 years). Participants stood with feet together in five conditions: baseline standing, internal focus, external focus, easy cognitive task, and difficult cognitive task. Analyses of variance were used to examine the effect of condition and age on the three dynamic measures.Results: The wavelet transform revealed a shift toward greater contributions from higher frequency bands in cognitive task conditions, suggesting greater automaticity. Sample entropy was higher in cognitive task conditions, suggesting more complex sway and automatic control. The external focus and difficult cognitive tasks increased trembling in young adults, suggesting increased contributions from spinal reflex components.Conclusion: Results support the theory that stability improvements in cognitive task conditions were due to automaticity in young and older adults. They also suggest that tasks that are more difficult are better at promoting automaticity than tasks requiring less cognitive involvement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie Richer
- School of Human Kinetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
| | - Yves Lajoie
- School of Human Kinetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
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15
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Curthoys IS, Grant JW, Pastras CJ, Brown DJ, Burgess AM, Brichta AM, Lim R. A review of mechanical and synaptic processes in otolith transduction of sound and vibration for clinical VEMP testing. J Neurophysiol 2019; 122:259-276. [DOI: 10.1152/jn.00031.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Older studies of mammalian otolith physiology have focused mainly on sustained responses to low-frequency (<50 Hz) or maintained linear acceleration. So the otoliths have been regarded as accelerometers. Thus evidence of otolithic activation and high-precision phase locking to high-frequency sound and vibration appears to be very unusual. However, those results are exactly in accord with a substantial body of knowledge of otolith function in fish and frogs. It is likely that phase locking of otolith afferents to vibration is a general property of all vertebrates. This review examines the literature about the activation and phase locking of single otolithic neurons to air-conducted sound and bone-conducted vibration, in particular the high precision of phase locking shown by mammalian irregular afferents that synapse on striolar type I hair cells by calyx endings. Potassium in the synaptic cleft between the type I hair cell receptor and the calyx afferent ending may be responsible for the tight phase locking of these afferents even at very high discharge rates. Since frogs and fish do not possess full calyx endings, it is unlikely that they show phase locking with such high precision and to such high frequencies as has been found in mammals. The high-frequency responses have been modeled as the otoliths operating in a seismometer mode rather than an accelerometer mode. These high-frequency otolithic responses constitute the neural basis for clinical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential tests of otolith function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian S. Curthoys
- Vestibular Research Laboratory, School of Psychology, the University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - J. Wally Grant
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
| | - Christopher J. Pastras
- The Meniere’s Laboratory, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Daniel J. Brown
- The Meniere’s Laboratory, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ann M. Burgess
- Vestibular Research Laboratory, School of Psychology, the University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Alan M. Brichta
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, The University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute. Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Rebecca Lim
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, The University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute. Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
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16
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Vasilopoulou‐Kampitsi M, Goyens J, Baeckens S, Van Damme R, Aerts P. Habitat use and vestibular system's dimensions in lacertid lizards. J Anat 2019; 235:1-14. [PMID: 30993713 PMCID: PMC6579939 DOI: 10.1111/joa.12993] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/05/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
The vestibular system is crucial for movement control during locomotion. As the dimensions of the vestibular system determine the fluid dynamics of the endolymph and, as such, the system's function, we investigate the interaction between vestibular system size, head size and microhabitat use in lizards. We grouped 24 lacertid species in three microhabitat types, we acquired three-dimensional models of the bony vestibular systems using micro-computer tomography scanning, and we performed linear and surface measurements. All vestibular measurements scale with a negative allometry with head size, suggesting that smaller heads house disproportionally large ears. As the sensitivity of the vestibular system is positively related to size, a sufficiently large vestibular system in small-headed animals may meet the sensitivity demands during challenged locomotion. We also found that the microhabitat affects the locomotor dynamics: lizards inhabiting open microhabitats run at higher dimensionless speeds. On the other hand, no statistical relationship exists between dimensionless speed and the vestibular system dimensions. Hence, if the vestibular size would differ between microhabitats, this would be a direct effect (i.e. imposed, for instance, by requirements for manoeuvring, balance control, etc.), rather than depending on the lizards' intrinsic running speed. However, we found no effect of the microhabitat on the allometric relationship between head and vestibular system size. The finding that microhabitat is not reflected in the vestibular system size (hence sensitivity) of the lacertids in this study is possibly due to spatial constraints of the skull.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jana Goyens
- Department of BiologyLaboratory of Functional MorphologyUniversity of AntwerpAntwerpBelgium
| | - Simon Baeckens
- Department of BiologyLaboratory of Functional MorphologyUniversity of AntwerpAntwerpBelgium
| | - Raoul Van Damme
- Department of BiologyLaboratory of Functional MorphologyUniversity of AntwerpAntwerpBelgium
| | - Peter Aerts
- Department of BiologyLaboratory of Functional MorphologyUniversity of AntwerpAntwerpBelgium
- Department of Movement and Sports SciencesGhent UniversityGhentBelgium
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17
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Cullen KE. Vestibular processing during natural self-motion: implications for perception and action. Nat Rev Neurosci 2019; 20:346-363. [PMID: 30914780 PMCID: PMC6611162 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-019-0153-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 116] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
How the brain computes accurate estimates of our self-motion relative to the world and our orientation relative to gravity in order to ensure accurate perception and motor control is a fundamental neuroscientific question. Recent experiments have revealed that the vestibular system encodes this information during everyday activities using pathway-specific neural representations. Furthermore, new findings have established that vestibular signals are selectively combined with extravestibular information at the earliest stages of central vestibular processing in a manner that depends on the current behavioural goal. These findings have important implications for our understanding of the brain mechanisms that ensure accurate perception and behaviour during everyday activities and for our understanding of disorders of vestibular processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathleen E Cullen
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
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18
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Sachgau C, Chung W, Barnett-Cowan M. Perceived timing of active head movement at different speeds. Neurosci Lett 2018; 687:253-258. [PMID: 30287302 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2018.09.065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2018] [Revised: 09/21/2018] [Accepted: 09/29/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
The central nervous system must determine which sensory events occur at the same time. Actively moving the head corresponds with large changes in the relationship between the observer and the environment, sensorimotor processing, and spatiotemporal perception. Active head movement perception has been shown to be dependent on head movement velocity where participants who move their head fastest require the head to move earlier than comparison stimuli for perceived simultaneity more so than those who move their head slower. Such between-subject results cannot address whether active head movement perception changes with velocity. The present study used a within-subjects design to measure the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS) between active head movement speeds and a comparison sound stimulus to characterize the relationship between the velocity and perception of head movement onset. Our results clearly show that i) head movement perception is faster with faster head movements within-subjects, ii) active head movement onset must still precede the onset of other sensory events (average PSS: -123 ms to -52 ms; median PSS: -42 ms to -100 ms) in order to be perceived as occurring simultaneously even at the fastest speeds (average peak velocity: 76°/s-257°/s; median peak velocity 72 ms-257 ms). We conclude that head movement perception is slow, but that this delay is minimized with increased speed. These within-subject results are contrary to previous and present study between-subject results and are in agreement with literature where perception of auditory, visual and vestibular stimulus onset is less delayed with increased stimulus intensity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolin Sachgau
- Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada.
| | - William Chung
- Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada
| | - Michael Barnett-Cowan
- Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada
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19
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Zhao G, Walsh K, Long J, Gui W, Denisova K. Reduced structural complexity of the right cerebellar cortex in male children with autism spectrum disorder. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0196964. [PMID: 29995885 PMCID: PMC6040688 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196964] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2017] [Accepted: 04/24/2018] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
The cerebellum contains 80% of all neurons in the human brain and contributes prominently to implicit learning and predictive processing across motor, sensory, and cognitive domains. As morphological features of the cerebellum in atypically developing individuals remain unexplored in-vivo, this is the first study to use high-resolution 3D fractal analysis to estimate fractal dimension (FD), a measure of structural complexity of an object, of the left and right cerebellar cortex (automatically segmented from Magnetic Resonance Images using FreeSurfer), in male children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) (N = 20; mean age: 8.8 years old, range: 7.13-10.27) and sex, age, verbal-IQ, and cerebellar volume-matched typically developing (TD) boys (N = 18; mean age: 8.9 years old, range: 6.47-10.52). We focus on an age range within the 'middle and late childhood' period of brain development, between 6 and 12 years. A Mann-Whitney U test revealed a significant reduction in the FD of the right cerebellar cortex in ASD relative to TD boys (P = 0.0063, Bonferroni-corrected), indicating flatter and less regular surface protrusions in ASD relative to TD males. Consistent with the prediction that the cerebellum participates in implicit learning, those ASD boys with a higher (vs. lower) PIQ>VIQ difference showed higher, more normative complexity values, closer to TD children, providing new insight on our understanding of the neurological basis of differences in verbal and performance cognitive abilities that often characterize individuals with ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guihu Zhao
- School of Information Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, P. R. China
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, United States of America
| | - Kirwan Walsh
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, United States of America
| | - Jun Long
- School of Information Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, P. R. China
- * E-mail: (KD); (JL)
| | - Weihua Gui
- School of Information Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, P. R. China
| | - Kristina Denisova
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, United States of America
- Sackler Institute for Psychobiology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, United States of America
- Division of Developmental Neuroscience, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, United States of America
- * E-mail: (KD); (JL)
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20
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Pastras CJ, Curthoys IS, Sokolic L, Brown DJ. Suppression of the vestibular short-latency evoked potential by electrical stimulation of the central vestibular system. Hear Res 2018; 361:23-35. [DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2018.01.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2017] [Revised: 01/15/2018] [Accepted: 01/22/2018] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
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21
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Haggerty SE, King WM. The Interaction of Pre-programmed Eye Movements With the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex. Front Syst Neurosci 2018; 12:4. [PMID: 29593506 PMCID: PMC5855878 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2018.00004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2017] [Accepted: 02/19/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex (VOR) works to stabilize gaze during unexpected head movements. However, even subjects who lack a VOR (e.g., vestibulopathic patients) can achieve gaze stability during planned head movements by using pre-programmed eye movements (PPEM). The extent to which PPEM are used by healthy intact subjects and how they interact with the VOR is still unclear. We propose a model of gaze stabilization which makes several claims: (1) the VOR provides ocular stability during unexpected (i.e., passive) head movements; (2) PPEM are used by both healthy and vestibulopathic subjects during planned (i.e., active) head movements; and (3) when a passive perturbation interrupts an active head movement in intact animals (i.e., combined passive and active head movement) the VOR works with PPEM to provide compensation. First, we show how our model can reconcile some seemingly conflicting findings in earlier literature. We then test the above-mentioned predictions against data we collected from both healthy and vestibular-lesioned guinea pigs. We found that (1) vestibular-lesioned animals showed a dramatic decrease in compensatory eye movements during passive head movements, (2) both populations showed improved ocular compensation during active vs. passive head movements, and (3) during combined active and passive head movements, eye movements compensated for both the active and passive component of head velocity. These results support our hypothesis that while the VOR provides compensation during passive head movements, PPEM are used by both intact and lesioned subjects during active movements and further, that PPEM work together with the VOR to achieve gaze stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie E Haggerty
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.,Kresge Hearing Research Institute, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
| | - W Michael King
- Kresge Hearing Research Institute, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
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22
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Barman SM, Yates BJ. Deciphering the Neural Control of Sympathetic Nerve Activity: Status Report and Directions for Future Research. Front Neurosci 2017; 11:730. [PMID: 29311801 PMCID: PMC5743742 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00730] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2017] [Accepted: 12/14/2017] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) contributes appreciably to the control of physiological function, such that pathological alterations in SNA can lead to a variety of diseases. The goal of this review is to discuss the characteristics of SNA, briefly review the methodology that has been used to assess SNA and its control, and to describe the essential role of neurophysiological studies in conscious animals to provide additional insights into the regulation of SNA. Studies in both humans and animals have shown that SNA is rhythmic or organized into bursts whose frequency varies depending on experimental conditions and the species. These rhythms are generated by brainstem neurons, and conveyed to sympathetic preganglionic neurons through several pathways, including those emanating from the rostral ventrolateral medulla. Although rhythmic SNA is present in decerebrate animals (indicating that neurons in the brainstem and spinal cord are adequate to generate this activity), there is considerable evidence that a variety of supratentorial structures including the insular and prefrontal cortices, amygdala, and hypothalamic subnuclei provide inputs to the brainstem regions that regulate SNA. It is also known that the characteristics of SNA are altered during stress and particular behaviors such as the defense response and exercise. While it is a certainty that supratentorial structures contribute to changes in SNA during these behaviors, the neural underpinnings of the responses are yet to be established. Understanding how SNA is modified during affective responses and particular behaviors will require neurophysiological studies in awake, behaving animals, including those that entail recording activity from neurons that generate SNA. Recent studies have shown that responses of neurons in the central nervous system to most sensory inputs are context-specific. Future neurophysiological studies in conscious animals should also ascertain whether this general rule also applies to sensory signals that modify SNA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan M Barman
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States
| | - Bill J Yates
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.,Department of Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
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23
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Laurens J, Angelaki DE. A unified internal model theory to resolve the paradox of active versus passive self-motion sensation. eLife 2017; 6:28074. [PMID: 29043978 PMCID: PMC5839740 DOI: 10.7554/elife.28074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2017] [Accepted: 10/11/2017] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Brainstem and cerebellar neurons implement an internal model to accurately estimate self-motion during externally generated (‘passive’) movements. However, these neurons show reduced responses during self-generated (‘active’) movements, indicating that predicted sensory consequences of motor commands cancel sensory signals. Remarkably, the computational processes underlying sensory prediction during active motion and their relationship to internal model computations during passive movements remain unknown. We construct a Kalman filter that incorporates motor commands into a previously established model of optimal passive self-motion estimation. The simulated sensory error and feedback signals match experimentally measured neuronal responses during active and passive head and trunk rotations and translations. We conclude that a single sensory internal model can combine motor commands with vestibular and proprioceptive signals optimally. Thus, although neurons carrying sensory prediction error or feedback signals show attenuated modulation, the sensory cues and internal model are both engaged and critically important for accurate self-motion estimation during active head movements. When seated in a car, we can detect when the vehicle begins to move even with our eyes closed. Structures in the inner ear called the vestibular, or balance, organs enable us to sense our own movement. They do this by detecting head rotations, accelerations and gravity. They then pass this information on to specialized vestibular regions of the brain. Experiments using rotating chairs and moving platforms have shown that passive movements – such as car journeys and rollercoaster rides – activate the brain’s vestibular regions. But recent work has revealed that voluntary movements – in which individuals start the movement themselves – activate these regions far less than passive movements. Does this mean that the brain ignores signals from the inner ear during voluntary movements? Another possibility is that the brain predicts in advance how each movement will affect the vestibular organs in the inner ear. It then compares these predictions with the signals it receives during the movement. Only mismatches between the two activate the brain’s vestibular regions. To test this theory, Laurens and Angelaki created a mathematical model that compares predicted signals with actual signals in the way the theory proposes. The model accurately predicts the patterns of brain activity seen during both active and passive movement. This reconciles the results of previous experiments on active and passive motion. It also suggests that the brain uses similar processes to analyze vestibular signals during both types of movement. These findings can help drive further research into how the brain uses sensory signals to refine our everyday movements. They can also help us understand how people recover from damage to the vestibular system. Most patients with vestibular injuries learn to walk again, but have difficulty walking on uneven ground. They also become disoriented by passive movement. Using the model to study how the brain adapts to loss of vestibular input could lead to new strategies to aid recovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean Laurens
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
| | - Dora E Angelaki
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
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24
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Mathews MA, Camp AJ, Murray AJ. Reviewing the Role of the Efferent Vestibular System in Motor and Vestibular Circuits. Front Physiol 2017; 8:552. [PMID: 28824449 PMCID: PMC5539236 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2017] [Accepted: 07/17/2017] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Efferent circuits within the nervous system carry nerve impulses from the central nervous system to sensory end organs. Vestibular efferents originate in the brainstem and terminate on hair cells and primary afferent fibers in the semicircular canals and otolith organs within the inner ear. The function of this efferent vestibular system (EVS) in vestibular and motor coordination though, has proven difficult to determine, and remains under debate. We consider current literature that implicate corollary discharge from the spinal cord through the efferent vestibular nucleus (EVN), and hint at a potential role in overall vestibular plasticity and compensation. Hypotheses range from differentiating between passive and active movements at the level of vestibular afferents, to EVS activation under specific behavioral and environmental contexts such as arousal, predation, and locomotion. In this review, we summarize current knowledge of EVS circuitry, its effects on vestibular hair cell and primary afferent activity, and discuss its potential functional roles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miranda A Mathews
- Sensory Systems and Integration Laboratory, Bosch Institute, Discipline of Biomedical Science, University of SydneySydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Aaron J Camp
- Sensory Systems and Integration Laboratory, Bosch Institute, Discipline of Biomedical Science, University of SydneySydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Andrew J Murray
- Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, University College LondonLondon, United Kingdom
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25
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Malmström EM, Fransson PA, Jaxmar Bruinen T, Facic S, Tjernström F. Disturbed cervical proprioception affects perception of spatial orientation while in motion. Exp Brain Res 2017. [PMID: 28623390 PMCID: PMC5550524 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-017-4993-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
The proprioceptive, visual and vestibular sensory systems interact to maintain dynamic stability during movement. The relative importance and interplay between these sensory systems is still not fully understood. Increased knowledge about spatial perception and postural orientation would provide better understanding of balance disorders, and their rehabilitation. Displacement of the body in space was recorded in 16 healthy subjects performing a sequence of stepping-in-place tests without any visual or auditory cues. Spatial displacement and orientation in space were determined by calculating two parameters, “Moved distance (sagittal + lateral displacement)” and “Rotation”. During the stepping-in-place tests vibration were applied in a randomized order on four different cervical muscles, and the effects were compared between muscles and to a non-vibration baseline condition. During the tests a forward displacement (“Moved distance”) was found to be the normal behavior, with various degrees of longitudinal rotation (“Rotation”). The moved distance was significantly larger when the vibration was applied on the dorsal muscles (916 mm) relative to on ventral muscles (715 mm) (p = 0.003) and the rate of displacement was significantly larger for dorsal muscles (36.5 mm/s) relative to ventral (28.7 mm/s) vs (p = 0.002). When vibration was applied on the left-sided muscles, 16° rotation to the right was induced (p = 0.005), whereas no significant rotation direction was induced with right-sided vibration (3°). The rate of rotation was significantly larger for vibration applied on ventral muscles (0.44°/s) relative to on dorsal (0.33°/s) (p = 0.019). The results highlight the influence of cervical proprioception on the internal spatial orientation, and subsequent for postural control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva-Maj Malmström
- Department of Pain Rehabilitation, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. .,Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
| | - Per-Anders Fransson
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | | | - Semir Facic
- Medpro Clinic Rehab AB, Torpavägen 23, Vänersborg, Sweden
| | - Fredrik Tjernström
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
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26
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Dugué GP, Tihy M, Gourévitch B, Léna C. Cerebellar re-encoding of self-generated head movements. eLife 2017; 6:e26179. [PMID: 28608779 PMCID: PMC5489315 DOI: 10.7554/elife.26179] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2017] [Accepted: 06/09/2017] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Head movements are primarily sensed in a reference frame tied to the head, yet they are used to calculate self-orientation relative to the world. This requires to re-encode head kinematic signals into a reference frame anchored to earth-centered landmarks such as gravity, through computations whose neuronal substrate remains to be determined. Here, we studied the encoding of self-generated head movements in the rat caudal cerebellar vermis, an area essential for graviceptive functions. We found that, contrarily to peripheral vestibular inputs, most Purkinje cells exhibited a mixed sensitivity to head rotational and gravitational information and were differentially modulated by active and passive movements. In a subpopulation of cells, this mixed sensitivity underlay a tuning to rotations about an axis defined relative to gravity. Therefore, we show that the caudal vermis hosts a re-encoded, gravitationally polarized representation of self-generated head kinematics in freely moving rats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guillaume P Dugué
- Neurophysiology of Brain Circuits Team, Institut de Biologie de l'École Normale Supérieure, Inserm U1024, CNRS UMR8197, École Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, France
| | - Matthieu Tihy
- Neurophysiology of Brain Circuits Team, Institut de Biologie de l'École Normale Supérieure, Inserm U1024, CNRS UMR8197, École Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, France
| | - Boris Gourévitch
- Genetics and Physiology of Hearing Laboratory, Inserm UMR1120, University Paris 6, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
| | - Clément Léna
- Neurophysiology of Brain Circuits Team, Institut de Biologie de l'École Normale Supérieure, Inserm U1024, CNRS UMR8197, École Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, France
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27
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Colagiorgio P, Versino M, Colnaghi S, Quaglieri S, Manfrin M, Zamaro E, Mantokoudis G, Zee DS, Ramat S. New insights into vestibular-saccade interaction based on covert corrective saccades in patients with unilateral vestibular deficits. J Neurophysiol 2017; 117:2324-2338. [PMID: 28404827 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00864.2016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2016] [Revised: 04/10/2017] [Accepted: 04/10/2017] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
In response to passive high-acceleration head impulses, patients with low vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) gains often produce covert (executed while the head is still moving) corrective saccades in the direction of deficient slow phases. Here we examined 23 patients using passive, and 9 also active, head impulses with acute (< 10 days from onset) unilateral vestibular neuritis and low VOR gains. We found that when corrective saccades are larger than 10°, the slow-phase component of the VOR is inhibited, even though inhibition increases further the time to reacquire the fixation target. We also found that 1) saccades are faster and more accurate if the residual VOR gain is higher, 2) saccades also compensate for the head displacement that occurs during the saccade, and 3) the amplitude-peak velocity relationship of the larger corrective saccades deviates from that of head-fixed saccades of the same size. We propose a mathematical model to account for these findings hypothesizing that covert saccades are driven by a desired gaze position signal based on a prediction of head displacement using vestibular and extravestibular signals, covert saccades are controlled by a gaze feedback loop, and the VOR command is modulated according to predicted saccade amplitude. A central and novel feature of the model is that the brain develops two separate estimates of head rotation, one for generating saccades while the head is moving and the other for generating slow phases. Furthermore, while the model was developed for gaze-stabilizing behavior during passively induced head impulses, it also simulates both active gaze-stabilizing and active gaze-shifting eye movements.NEW & NOTEWORTHY During active or passive head impulses while fixating stationary targets, low vestibulo-ocular gain subjects produce corrective saccades when the head is still moving. The mechanisms driving these covert saccades are poorly understood. We propose a mathematical model showing that the brain develops two separate estimates of head rotation: a lower level one, presumably in the vestibular nuclei, used to generate the slow-phase component of the response, and a higher level one, within a gaze feedback loop, used to drive corrective saccades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paolo Colagiorgio
- Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Maurizio Versino
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.,Laboratory of Neuro-otology and Neuro-ophthalmology, C. Mondino National Neurological Institute, Pavia, Italy
| | - Silvia Colnaghi
- Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.,Inter-Department Multiple Sclerosis Research Centre, C. Mondino National Neurological Institute, Pavia, Italy
| | - Silvia Quaglieri
- UOC Otorinolaringoiatria, Fondazione IRCCS San Matteo and University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Marco Manfrin
- UOC Otorinolaringoiatria, Fondazione IRCCS San Matteo and University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Ewa Zamaro
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, lnselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; and
| | - Georgios Mantokoudis
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, lnselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; and
| | - David S Zee
- Department of Neurology, Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Neuroscience, Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Stefano Ramat
- Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy;
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McCall AA, Miller DM, Yates BJ. Descending Influences on Vestibulospinal and Vestibulosympathetic Reflexes. Front Neurol 2017; 8:112. [PMID: 28396651 PMCID: PMC5366978 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2017.00112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2017] [Accepted: 03/09/2017] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
This review considers the integration of vestibular and other signals by the central nervous system pathways that participate in balance control and blood pressure regulation, with an emphasis on how this integration may modify posture-related responses in accordance with behavioral context. Two pathways convey vestibular signals to limb motoneurons: the lateral vestibulospinal tract and reticulospinal projections. Both pathways receive direct inputs from the cerebral cortex and cerebellum, and also integrate vestibular, spinal, and other inputs. Decerebration in animals or strokes that interrupt corticobulbar projections in humans alter the gain of vestibulospinal reflexes and the responses of vestibular nucleus neurons to particular stimuli. This evidence shows that supratentorial regions modify the activity of the vestibular system, but the functional importance of descending influences on vestibulospinal reflexes acting on the limbs is currently unknown. It is often overlooked that the vestibulospinal and reticulospinal systems mainly terminate on spinal interneurons, and not directly on motoneurons, yet little is known about the transformation of vestibular signals that occurs in the spinal cord. Unexpected changes in body position that elicit vestibulospinal reflexes can also produce vestibulosympathetic responses that serve to maintain stable blood pressure. Vestibulosympathetic reflexes are mediated, at least in part, through a specialized group of reticulospinal neurons in the rostral ventrolateral medulla that project to sympathetic preganglionic neurons in the spinal cord. However, other pathways may also contribute to these responses, including those that dually participate in motor control and regulation of sympathetic nervous system activity. Vestibulosympathetic reflexes differ in conscious and decerebrate animals, indicating that supratentorial regions alter these responses. However, as with vestibular reflexes acting on the limbs, little is known about the physiological significance of descending control of vestibulosympathetic pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew A McCall
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine , Pittsburgh, PA , USA
| | - Derek M Miller
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine , Pittsburgh, PA , USA
| | - Bill J Yates
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine , Pittsburgh, PA , USA
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29
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Bakker RS, Weijer RHA, van Beers RJ, Selen LPJ, Medendorp WP. Decisions in motion: passive body acceleration modulates hand choice. J Neurophysiol 2017; 117:2250-2261. [PMID: 28250146 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00022.2017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2017] [Revised: 02/24/2017] [Accepted: 02/26/2017] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
In everyday life, we frequently have to decide which hand to use for a certain action. It has been suggested that for this decision the brain calculates expected costs based on action values, such as expected biomechanical costs, expected success rate, handedness, and skillfulness. Although these conclusions were based on experiments in stationary subjects, we often act while the body is in motion. We investigated how hand choice is affected by passive body motion, which directly affects the biomechanical costs of the arm movement due to its inertia. With the use of a linear motion platform, 12 right-handed subjects were sinusoidally translated (0.625 and 0.5 Hz). At 8 possible motion phases, they had to reach, using either their left or right hand, to a target presented at 1 of 11 possible locations. We predicted hand choice by calculating the expected biomechanical costs under different assumptions about the future acceleration involved in these computations, being the forthcoming acceleration during the reach, the instantaneous acceleration at target onset, or zero acceleration as if the body were stationary. Although hand choice was generally biased to use of the dominant hand, it also modulated sinusoidally with the motion, with the amplitude of the bias depending on the motion's peak acceleration. The phase of hand choice modulation was consistent with the cost model that took the instantaneous acceleration signal at target onset. This suggests that the brain relies on the bottom-up acceleration signals, and not on predictions about future accelerations, when deciding on hand choice during passive whole body motion.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Decisions of hand choice are a fundamental aspect of human behavior. Whereas these decisions are typically studied in stationary subjects, this study examines hand choice while subjects are in motion. We show that accelerations of the body, which differentially modulate the biomechanical costs of left and right hand movements, are also taken into account when deciding which hand to use for a reach, possibly based on bottom-up processing of the otolith signal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Romy S Bakker
- Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; and
| | - Roel H A Weijer
- Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; and.,Department of Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Robert J van Beers
- Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; and.,Department of Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Luc P J Selen
- Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; and
| | - W Pieter Medendorp
- Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; and
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30
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Ellis AW, Mast FW. Toward a Dynamic Probabilistic Model for Vestibular Cognition. Front Psychol 2017; 8:138. [PMID: 28203219 PMCID: PMC5285352 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2016] [Accepted: 01/19/2017] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
We suggest that research in vestibular cognition will benefit from the theoretical framework of probabilistic models. This will aid in developing an understanding of how interactions between high-level cognition and low-level sensory processing might occur. Many such interactions have been shown experimentally; however, to date, no attempt has been made to systematically explore vestibular cognition by using computational modeling. It is widely assumed that mental imagery and perception share at least in part neural circuitry, and it has been proposed that mental simulation is closely connected to the brain’s ability to make predictions. We claim that this connection has been disregarded in the vestibular domain, and we suggest ways in which future research may take this into consideration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew W Ellis
- Department of Psychology, University of Bern Bern, Switzerland
| | - Fred W Mast
- Department of Psychology, University of Bern Bern, Switzerland
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31
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Genzel D, Firzlaff U, Wiegrebe L, MacNeilage PR. Dependence of auditory spatial updating on vestibular, proprioceptive, and efference copy signals. J Neurophysiol 2016; 116:765-75. [PMID: 27169504 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00052.2016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2016] [Accepted: 05/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans localize sounds by comparing inputs across the two ears, resulting in a head-centered representation of sound-source position. When the head moves, information about head movement must be combined with the head-centered estimate to correctly update the world-centered sound-source position. Spatial updating has been extensively studied in the visual system, but less is known about how head movement signals interact with binaural information during auditory spatial updating. In the current experiments, listeners compared the world-centered azimuthal position of two sound sources presented before and after a head rotation that depended on condition. In the active condition, subjects rotated their head by ∼35° to the left or right, following a pretrained trajectory. In the passive condition, subjects were rotated along the same trajectory in a rotating chair. In the cancellation condition, subjects rotated their head as in the active condition, but the chair was counter-rotated on the basis of head-tracking data such that the head effectively remained fixed in space while the body rotated beneath it. Subjects updated most accurately in the passive condition but erred in the active and cancellation conditions. Performance is interpreted as reflecting the accuracy of perceived head rotation across conditions, which is modeled as a linear combination of proprioceptive/efference copy signals and vestibular signals. Resulting weights suggest that auditory updating is dominated by vestibular signals but with significant contributions from proprioception/efference copy. Overall, results shed light on the interplay of sensory and motor signals that determine the accuracy of auditory spatial updating.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daria Genzel
- Department Biology II, Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany; Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany
| | - Uwe Firzlaff
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany; Chair of Zoology, Technische Universität München, Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany; and
| | - Lutz Wiegrebe
- Department Biology II, Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany; Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany
| | - Paul R MacNeilage
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany; Deutsches Schwindel- und Gleichgewichtszentrum, University Hospital of Munich, Munich, Germany
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32
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Haji-Abolhassani I, Guitton D, Galiana HL. Modeling eye-head gaze shifts in multiple contexts without motor planning. J Neurophysiol 2016; 116:1956-1985. [PMID: 27440248 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00605.2015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2015] [Accepted: 07/14/2016] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
During gaze shifts, the eyes and head collaborate to rapidly capture a target (saccade) and fixate it. Accordingly, models of gaze shift control should embed both saccadic and fixation modes and a mechanism for switching between them. We demonstrate a model in which the eye and head platforms are driven by a shared gaze error signal. To limit the number of free parameters, we implement a model reduction approach in which steady-state cerebellar effects at each of their projection sites are lumped with the parameter of that site. The model topology is consistent with anatomy and neurophysiology, and can replicate eye-head responses observed in multiple experimental contexts: 1) observed gaze characteristics across species and subjects can emerge from this structure with minor parametric changes; 2) gaze can move to a goal while in the fixation mode; 3) ocular compensation for head perturbations during saccades could rely on vestibular-only cells in the vestibular nuclei with postulated projections to burst neurons; 4) two nonlinearities suffice, i.e., the experimentally-determined mapping of tectoreticular cells onto brain stem targets and the increased recruitment of the head for larger target eccentricities; 5) the effects of initial conditions on eye/head trajectories are due to neural circuit dynamics, not planning; and 6) "compensatory" ocular slow phases exist even after semicircular canal plugging, because of interconnections linking eye-head circuits. Our model structure also simulates classical vestibulo-ocular reflex and pursuit nystagmus, and provides novel neural circuit and behavioral predictions, notably that both eye-head coordination and segmental limb coordination are possible without trajectory planning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iman Haji-Abolhassani
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; and
| | - Daniel Guitton
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Henrietta L Galiana
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; and
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33
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Giersch A, Lalanne L, Isope P. Implicit Timing as the Missing Link between Neurobiological and Self Disorders in Schizophrenia? Front Hum Neurosci 2016; 10:303. [PMID: 27378893 PMCID: PMC4913093 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2016.00303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2015] [Accepted: 06/03/2016] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Disorders of consciousness and the self are at the forefront of schizophrenia symptomatology. Patients are impaired in feeling themselves as the authors of their thoughts and actions. In addition, their flow of consciousness is disrupted, and thought fragmentation has been suggested to be involved in the patients' difficulties in feeling as being one unique, unchanging self across time. Both impairments are related to self disorders, and both have been investigated at the experimental level. Here we review evidence that both mechanisms of motor control and the temporal structure of signal processing are impaired in schizophrenia patients. Based on this review, we propose that the sequencing of action and perception plays a key role in the patients' impairments. Furthermore, the millisecond time scale of the disorders, as well as the impaired sequencing, highlights the cooperation between brain networks including the cerebellum, as proposed by Andreasen (1999). We examine this possibility in the light of recent knowledge on the anatomical and physiological properties of the cerebellum, its role in timing, and its involvement in known physiological impairments in patients with schizophrenia, e.g., resting states and brain dynamics. A disruption in communication between networks involving the cerebellum, related to known impairments in dopamine, glutamate and GABA transmission, may help to better explain why patients experience reduced attunement with the external world and possibly with themselves.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne Giersch
- Department of Psychiatry, INSERM U1114, Fédération de Médecine Translationnelle de Strasbourg, Strasbourg University Hospital Strasbourg, France
| | - Laurence Lalanne
- Department of Psychiatry, INSERM U1114, Fédération de Médecine Translationnelle de Strasbourg, Strasbourg University Hospital Strasbourg, France
| | - Philippe Isope
- Institute of Cellular and Integrative Neurosciences (INCI), CNRS UPR 3212, Strasbourg University Strasbourg, France
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34
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Dahlem K, Valko Y, Schmahmann JD, Lewis RF. Cerebellar contributions to self-motion perception: evidence from patients with congenital cerebellar agenesis. J Neurophysiol 2016; 115:2280-5. [PMID: 26888100 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00763.2015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2015] [Accepted: 02/16/2016] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The cerebellum was historically considered a brain region dedicated to motor control, but it has become clear that it also contributes to sensory processing, particularly when sensory discrimination is required. Prior work, for example, has demonstrated a cerebellar contribution to sensory discrimination in the visual and auditory systems. The cerebellum also receives extensive inputs from the motion and gravity sensors in the vestibular labyrinth, but its role in the perception of head motion and orientation has received little attention. Drawing on the lesion-deficit approach to understanding brain function, we evaluated the contributions of the cerebellum to head motion perception by measuring perceptual thresholds in two subjects with congenital agenesis of the cerebellum. We used a set of passive motion paradigms that activated the semicircular canals or otolith organs in isolation or combination, and compared results of the agenesis patients with healthy control subjects. Perceptual thresholds for head motion were elevated in the agenesis subjects for all motion protocols, most prominently for paradigms that only activated otolith inputs. These results demonstrate that the cerebellum increases the sensitivity of the brain to the motion and orientation signals provided by the labyrinth during passive head movements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kilian Dahlem
- Rijksuniversity Groningen University Medical Center, Groningen, The Netherlands; Jenks Vestibular Laboratory, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Yulia Valko
- Jenks Vestibular Laboratory, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich/University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Jeremy D Schmahmann
- Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Ataxia Unit, Cognitive Behavioral Neurology Unit, Laboratory for Neuroanatomy and Cerebellar Neurobiology, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; and
| | - Richard F Lewis
- Jenks Vestibular Laboratory, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Otolaryngology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
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35
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Kumar N, Mutha PK. Adaptive reliance on the most stable sensory predictions enhances perceptual feature extraction of moving stimuli. J Neurophysiol 2016; 115:1654-63. [PMID: 26823516 PMCID: PMC4808085 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00850.2015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2015] [Accepted: 01/26/2016] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The prediction of the sensory outcomes of action is thought to be useful for distinguishing self- vs. externally generated sensations, correcting movements when sensory feedback is delayed, and learning predictive models for motor behavior. Here, we show that aspects of another fundamental function—perception—are enhanced when they entail the contribution of predicted sensory outcomes and that this enhancement relies on the adaptive use of the most stable predictions available. We combined a motor-learning paradigm that imposes new sensory predictions with a dynamic visual search task to first show that perceptual feature extraction of a moving stimulus is poorer when it is based on sensory feedback that is misaligned with those predictions. This was possible because our novel experimental design allowed us to override the “natural” sensory predictions present when any action is performed and separately examine the influence of these two sources on perceptual feature extraction. We then show that if the new predictions induced via motor learning are unreliable, rather than just relying on sensory information for perceptual judgments, as is conventionally thought, then subjects adaptively transition to using other stable sensory predictions to maintain greater accuracy in their perceptual judgments. Finally, we show that when sensory predictions are not modified at all, these judgments are sharper when subjects combine their natural predictions with sensory feedback. Collectively, our results highlight the crucial contribution of sensory predictions to perception and also suggest that the brain intelligently integrates the most stable predictions available with sensory information to maintain high fidelity in perceptual decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neeraj Kumar
- Centre for Cognitive Science, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India; and
| | - Pratik K Mutha
- Centre for Cognitive Science, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India; and Department of Biological Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
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36
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Yavari F, Mahdavi S, Towhidkhah F, Ahmadi-Pajouh MA, Ekhtiari H, Darainy M. Cerebellum as a forward but not inverse model in visuomotor adaptation task: a tDCS-based and modeling study. Exp Brain Res 2015; 234:997-1012. [DOI: 10.1007/s00221-015-4523-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2015] [Accepted: 12/01/2015] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
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37
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Mast FW, Ellis AW. Internal Models, Vestibular Cognition, and Mental Imagery: Conceptual Considerations. Multisens Res 2015; 28:443-60. [PMID: 26595951 DOI: 10.1163/22134808-00002503] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Vestibular cognition has recently gained attention. Despite numerous experimental and clinical demonstrations, it is not yet clear what vestibular cognition really is. For future research in vestibular cognition, adopting a computational approach will make it easier to explore the underlying mechanisms. Indeed, most modeling approaches in vestibular science include a top-down or a priori component. We review recent Bayesian optimal observer models, and discuss in detail the conceptual value of prior assumptions, likelihood and posterior estimates for research in vestibular cognition. We then consider forward models in vestibular processing, which are required in order to distinguish between sensory input that is induced by active self-motion, and sensory input that is due to passive self-motion. We suggest that forward models are used not only in the service of estimating sensory states but they can also be drawn upon in an offline mode (e.g., spatial perspective transformations), in which interaction with sensory input is not desired. A computational approach to vestibular cognition will help to discover connections across studies, and it will provide a more coherent framework for investigating vestibular cognition.
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38
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Chagnaud BP, Banchi R, Simmers J, Straka H. Spinal corollary discharge modulates motion sensing during vertebrate locomotion. Nat Commun 2015; 6:7982. [PMID: 26337184 PMCID: PMC4569702 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2014] [Accepted: 07/02/2015] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
During active movements, neural replicas of the underlying motor commands may assist in adapting motion-detecting sensory systems to an animal's own behaviour. The transmission of such motor efference copies to the mechanosensory periphery offers a potential predictive substrate for diminishing sensory responsiveness to self-motion during vertebrate locomotion. Here, using semi-isolated in vitro preparations of larval Xenopus, we demonstrate that shared efferent neural pathways to hair cells of vestibular endorgans and lateral line neuromasts express cyclic impulse bursts during swimming that are directly driven by spinal locomotor circuitry. Despite common efferent innervation and discharge patterns, afferent signal encoding at the two mechanosensory peripheries is influenced differentially by efference copy signals, reflecting the different organization of body/water motion-detecting processes in the vestibular and lateral line systems. The resultant overall gain reduction in sensory signal encoding in both cases, which likely prevents overstimulation, constitutes an adjustment to increased stimulus magnitudes during locomotion. Corollary discharges inform the central nervous system about impending motor activity. Here, Chagnaud et al. show that, in Xenopus tadpoles, shared efferent neural pathways to the inner ear and lateral line adjust the sensitivity of sensory afferents during locomotor activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Boris P Chagnaud
- Department of Biology II, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Grosshadernerstrasse 2, 82152 Planegg-Martinsried, Germany
| | - Roberto Banchi
- Department of Biology II, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Grosshadernerstrasse 2, 82152 Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.,Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Planegg-Martinsried 82152, Germany
| | - John Simmers
- Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d'Aquitaine, Université de Bordeaux, CNRS UMR 5287, 33076 Bordeaux, France
| | - Hans Straka
- Department of Biology II, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Grosshadernerstrasse 2, 82152 Planegg-Martinsried, Germany
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Agathos CP, Bernardin D, Huchet D, Scherlen AC, Assaiante C, Isableu B. Sensorimotor and cognitive factors associated with the age-related increase of visual field dependence: a cross-sectional study. AGE (DORDRECHT, NETHERLANDS) 2015; 37:9805. [PMID: 26122710 PMCID: PMC4485658 DOI: 10.1007/s11357-015-9805-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2014] [Accepted: 06/21/2015] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
Reliance on the visual frame of reference for spatial orientation (or visual field dependence) has been reported to increase with age. This has implications on old adults' daily living tasks as it affects stability, attention, and adaptation capacities. However, the nature and underlying mechanisms of this increase are not well defined. We investigated sensorimotor and cognitive factors possibly associated with increased visual field dependence in old age, by considering functions that are both known to degrade with age and important for spatial orientation and sensorimotor control: reliance on the (somatosensory-based) egocentric frame of reference, visual fixation stability, and attentional processing of complex visual scenes (useful field of view, UFOV). Twenty young, 18 middle-aged, and 20 old adults completed a visual examination, three tests of visual field dependence (RFT, RDT, and GEFT), a test of egocentric dependence (subjective vertical estimation with the body erect and tilted at 70°), a visual fixation task, and a test of visual attentional processing (UFOV®). Increased visual field dependence with age was associated with reduced egocentric dependence, visual fixation stability, and visual attentional processing. In addition, visual fixation instability and reduced UFOV were correlated. Results of middle-aged adults fell between those of the young and old, revealing the progressive nature of the age effects we evaluated. We discuss results in terms of reference frame selection with respect to ageing as well as visual and non-visual information processing. Inter-individual differences amongst old adults are highlighted and discussed with respect to the functionality of increased visual field dependence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine P Agathos
- R&D Optics Department, Vision Sciences Department, Essilor International, 75012, Paris, France,
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40
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Abstract
Evidence accumulated over 30 years, from experiments on animals and human subjects, has conclusively demonstrated that inputs from the vestibular otolith organs contribute to the control of blood pressure during movement and changes in posture. This review considers the effects of gravity on the body axis, and the consequences of postural changes on blood distribution in the body. It then separately considers findings collected in experiments on animals and human subjects demonstrating that the vestibular system regulates blood distribution in the body during movement. Vestibulosympathetic reflexes differ from responses triggered by unloading of cardiovascular receptors such as baroreceptors and cardiopulmonary receptors, as they can be elicited before a change in blood distribution occurs in the body. Dissimilarities in the expression of vestibulosympathetic reflexes in humans and animals are also described. In particular, there is evidence from experiments in animals, but not humans, that vestibulosympathetic reflexes are patterned, and differ between body regions. Results from neurophysiological and neuroanatomical studies in animals are discussed that identify the neurons that mediate vestibulosympathetic responses, which include cells in the caudal aspect of the vestibular nucleus complex, interneurons in the lateral medullary reticular formation, and bulbospinal neurons in the rostral ventrolateral medulla. Recent findings showing that cognition can modify the gain of vestibulosympathetic responses are also presented, and neural pathways that could mediate adaptive plasticity in the responses are proposed, including connections of the posterior cerebellar vermis with the vestibular nuclei and brainstem nuclei that regulate blood pressure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bill J Yates
- Departments of Otolaryngology and Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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41
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Rondi-Reig L, Paradis AL, Lefort JM, Babayan BM, Tobin C. How the cerebellum may monitor sensory information for spatial representation. Front Syst Neurosci 2014; 8:205. [PMID: 25408638 PMCID: PMC4219422 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2014.00205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2014] [Accepted: 10/01/2014] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
The cerebellum has already been shown to participate in the navigation function. We propose here that this structure is involved in maintaining a sense of direction and location during self-motion by monitoring sensory information and interacting with navigation circuits to update the mental representation of space. To better understand the processing performed by the cerebellum in the navigation function, we have reviewed: the anatomical pathways that convey self-motion information to the cerebellum; the computational algorithm(s) thought to be performed by the cerebellum from these multi-source inputs; the cerebellar outputs directed toward navigation circuits and the influence of self-motion information on space-modulated cells receiving cerebellar outputs. This review highlights that the cerebellum is adequately wired to combine the diversity of sensory signals to be monitored during self-motion and fuel the navigation circuits. The direct anatomical projections of the cerebellum toward the head-direction cell system and the parietal cortex make those structures possible relays of the cerebellum influence on the hippocampal spatial map. We describe computational models of the cerebellar function showing that the cerebellum can filter out the components of the sensory signals that are predictable, and provides a novelty output. We finally speculate that this novelty output is taken into account by the navigation structures, which implement an update over time of position and stabilize perception during navigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laure Rondi-Reig
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR-S 8246/UM 119, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France ; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale 1130, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France ; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 8246, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France
| | - Anne-Lise Paradis
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR-S 8246/UM 119, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France ; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale 1130, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France ; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 8246, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France
| | - Julie M Lefort
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR-S 8246/UM 119, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France ; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale 1130, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France ; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 8246, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France
| | - Benedicte M Babayan
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR-S 8246/UM 119, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France ; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale 1130, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France ; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 8246, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France
| | - Christine Tobin
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR-S 8246/UM 119, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France ; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale 1130, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France ; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 8246, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Cerebellum, Navigation and Memory Team Paris, France
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Ribeyre L, Frère J, Gauchard G, Lion A, Perrin P, Spitz E, Parietti-Winkler C. Preoperative balance control compensation in patients with a vestibular schwannoma: does tumor size matter? Clin Neurophysiol 2014; 126:787-93. [PMID: 25242564 DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2014.07.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2014] [Revised: 06/27/2014] [Accepted: 07/13/2014] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The influence of tumor size on postural control of patients with vestibular schwannoma (VS) remains to be determined. This study aimed to compare the postural performances of VS patients, according to the size of the tumor, with healthy subjects. METHODS The six conditions (C1-C6) of the sensory organization test (SOT) were carried out in 87 patients, split into four groups according to the Koos classification (stage I-IV), and in 72 aged-matched controls to evaluate postural control. The vestibular reflectivity and compensation were estimated with videonystagmography. RESULTS Among patients, lower C5 and C6 scores were found in stage I and IV patients than in stage II and III patients, whereas vestibular compensation did not impact the tumor size influence on the postural control. The scores were significantly (p<0.001) lower for all the groups of patients than the controls in the vestibular-related SOT conditions (C5-C6). CONCLUSIONS Patients with an unilateral VS displayed altered postural performances compared to the control subjects and tumor size had a bell-like pattern effect on balance control. SIGNIFICANCE The tumor size could be seen as a determining factor in the implementation of adaptive mechanisms that lead to the postural compensation and might be dissociated from vestibular compensation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurence Ribeyre
- Service d'Oto-Rhino-Laryngologie et de Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, 54000 Nancy, France; Université de Lorraine and Université Paris Descartes, Laboratoire APEMAC «Maladies chroniques, santé perçue et processus d'adaptation. Approches épidémiologiques et psychologiques» (EA 4360), 54500 Vandœuvre lès Nancy, France
| | - Julien Frère
- Service d'Oto-Rhino-Laryngologie et de Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, 54000 Nancy, France; Faculté de Médecine and UFR STAPS, Université de Lorraine, Laboratoire «Développement, Adaptation et Handicap» (EA 3450), 54500 Vandœuvre lès Nancy, France
| | - Gérome Gauchard
- Service d'Oto-Rhino-Laryngologie et de Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, 54000 Nancy, France; Faculté de Médecine and UFR STAPS, Université de Lorraine, Laboratoire «Développement, Adaptation et Handicap» (EA 3450), 54500 Vandœuvre lès Nancy, France
| | - Alexis Lion
- Faculté de Médecine and UFR STAPS, Université de Lorraine, Laboratoire «Développement, Adaptation et Handicap» (EA 3450), 54500 Vandœuvre lès Nancy, France; Sports Medicine Research Laboratory, Public Research Centre for Health, 1460 Luxembourg, Luxembourg
| | - Philippe Perrin
- Service d'Oto-Rhino-Laryngologie et de Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, 54000 Nancy, France; Faculté de Médecine and UFR STAPS, Université de Lorraine, Laboratoire «Développement, Adaptation et Handicap» (EA 3450), 54500 Vandœuvre lès Nancy, France
| | - Elisabeth Spitz
- Université de Lorraine and Université Paris Descartes, Laboratoire APEMAC «Maladies chroniques, santé perçue et processus d'adaptation. Approches épidémiologiques et psychologiques» (EA 4360), 54500 Vandœuvre lès Nancy, France
| | - Cécile Parietti-Winkler
- Service d'Oto-Rhino-Laryngologie et de Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, 54000 Nancy, France; Faculté de Médecine and UFR STAPS, Université de Lorraine, Laboratoire «Développement, Adaptation et Handicap» (EA 3450), 54500 Vandœuvre lès Nancy, France.
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Arshian MS, Hobson CE, Catanzaro MF, Miller DJ, Puterbaugh SR, Cotter LA, Yates BJ, McCall AA. Vestibular nucleus neurons respond to hindlimb movement in the decerebrate cat. J Neurophysiol 2014; 111:2423-32. [PMID: 24671527 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00855.2013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The vestibular nuclei integrate information from vestibular and proprioceptive afferents, which presumably facilitates the maintenance of stable balance and posture. However, little is currently known about the processing of sensory signals from the limbs by vestibular nucleus neurons. This study tested the hypothesis that limb movement is encoded by vestibular nucleus neurons and described the changes in activity of these neurons elicited by limb extension and flexion. In decerebrate cats, we recorded the activity of 70 vestibular nucleus neurons whose activity was modulated by limb movements. Most of these neurons (57/70, 81.4%) encoded information about the direction of hindlimb movement, while the remaining neurons (13/70, 18.6%) encoded the presence of hindlimb movement without signaling the direction of movement. The activity of many vestibular nucleus neurons that responded to limb movement was also modulated by rotating the animal's body in vertical planes, suggesting that the neurons integrated hindlimb and labyrinthine inputs. Neurons whose firing rate increased during ipsilateral ear-down roll rotations tended to be excited by hindlimb flexion, whereas neurons whose firing rate increased during contralateral ear-down tilts were excited by hindlimb extension. These observations suggest that there is a purposeful mapping of hindlimb inputs onto vestibular nucleus neurons, such that integration of hindlimb and labyrinthine inputs to the neurons is functionally relevant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Milad S Arshian
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Midwestern University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Chicago, Illinois
| | - Candace E Hobson
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Michael F Catanzaro
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Department of Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and
| | - Daniel J Miller
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Sonya R Puterbaugh
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Lucy A Cotter
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Bill J Yates
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Department of Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and
| | - Andrew A McCall
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;
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Laurens J, Meng H, Angelaki DE. Neural representation of orientation relative to gravity in the macaque cerebellum. Neuron 2014; 80:1508-18. [PMID: 24360549 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.09.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/17/2013] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
A fundamental challenge for maintaining spatial orientation and interacting with the world is knowledge of our orientation relative to gravity, i.e., head tilt. Sensing gravity is complicated because of Einstein's equivalence principle, in which gravitational and translational accelerations are physically indistinguishable. Theory has proposed that this ambiguity is solved by tracking head tilt through multisensory integration. Here we identify a group of Purkinje cells in the caudal cerebellar vermis with responses that reflect an estimate of head tilt. These tilt-selective cells are complementary to translation-selective Purkinje cells, such that their population activities sum to the net gravitoinertial acceleration encoded by the otolith organs, as predicted by theory. These findings reflect the remarkable ability of the cerebellum for neural computation and provide quantitative evidence for a neural representation of gravity, whose calculation relies on long-postulated theoretical concepts such as internal models and Bayesian priors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean Laurens
- Department of Otolaryngology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
| | - Hui Meng
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Dora E Angelaki
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
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45
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Abstract
How precisely does the brain predict the sensory consequences of our actions? Efference copy is thought to reflect the predicted sensation of self-produced motor acts, such as the auditory feedback heard while speaking. Here, we use magnetoencephalographic imaging (MEG-I) in human speakers to demonstrate that efference copy prediction does not track movement variability across repetitions of the same motor task. Specifically, spoken vowels were less accurately predicted when they were less similar to a speaker's median production, even though the prediction is thought to be based on the very motor commands that generate each vowel. Auditory cortical responses to less prototypical speech productions were less suppressed, resembling responses to speech errors, and were correlated with later corrective movement, suggesting that the suppression may be functionally significant for error correction. The failure of the motor system to accurately predict less prototypical speech productions suggests that the efferent-driven suppression does not reflect a sensory prediction, but a sensory goal.
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46
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Laurens J, Meng H, Angelaki DE. Computation of linear acceleration through an internal model in the macaque cerebellum. Nat Neurosci 2013; 16:1701-8. [PMID: 24077562 PMCID: PMC3818145 DOI: 10.1038/nn.3530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2013] [Accepted: 09/04/2013] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
A combination of theory and behavioral findings has supported a role for internal models in the resolution of sensory ambiguities and sensorimotor processing. Although the cerebellum has been proposed as a candidate for implementation of internal models, concrete evidence from neural responses is lacking. Here we exploit un-natural motion stimuli, which induce incorrect self-motion perception and eye movements, to explore the neural correlates of an internal model proposed to compensate for Einstein’s equivalence principle and generate neural estimates of linear acceleration and gravity. We show that caudal cerebellar vermis Purkinje cells and cerebellar nuclei neurons selective for actual linear acceleration also encode erroneous linear acceleration, as expected from the internal model hypothesis, even when no actual linear acceleration occurs. These findings provide strong evidence that the cerebellum might be involved in the implementation of internal models that mimic physical principles to interpret sensory signals, as previously hypothesized by theorists.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean Laurens
- Department of Otolaryngology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
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47
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Rochefort C, Lefort JM, Rondi-Reig L. The cerebellum: a new key structure in the navigation system. Front Neural Circuits 2013; 7:35. [PMID: 23493515 PMCID: PMC3595517 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2013.00035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2012] [Accepted: 02/22/2013] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Early investigations of cerebellar function focused on motor learning, in particular on eyeblink conditioning and adaptation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex, and led to the general view that cerebellar long-term depression (LTD) at parallel fiber (PF)–Purkinje cell (PC) synapses is the neural correlate of cerebellar motor learning. Thereafter, while the full complexity of cerebellar plasticities was being unraveled, cerebellar involvement in more cognitive tasks—including spatial navigation—was further investigated. However, cerebellar implication in spatial navigation remains a matter of debate because motor deficits frequently associated with cerebellar damage often prevent the dissociation between its role in spatial cognition from its implication in motor function. Here, we review recent findings from behavioral and electrophysiological analyses of cerebellar mutant mouse models, which show that the cerebellum might participate in the construction of hippocampal spatial representation map (i.e., place cells) and thereby in goal-directed navigation. These recent advances in cerebellar research point toward a model in which computation from the cerebellum could be required for spatial representation and would involve the integration of multi-source self-motion information to: (1) transform the reference frame of vestibular signals and (2) distinguish between self- and externally-generated vestibular signals. We eventually present herein anatomical and functional connectivity data supporting a cerebello-hippocampal interaction. Whilst a direct cerebello-hippocampal projection has been suggested, recent investigations rather favor a multi-synaptic pathway involving posterior parietal and retrosplenial cortices, two regions critically involved in spatial navigation.
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48
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King WM. Getting ahead of oneself: anticipation and the vestibulo-ocular reflex. Neuroscience 2013; 236:210-9. [PMID: 23370320 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2012.12.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2012] [Revised: 12/12/2012] [Accepted: 12/13/2012] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Compensatory counter-rotations of the eyes provoked by head turns are commonly attributed to the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). A recent study in guinea pigs demonstrates, however, that this assumption is not always valid. During voluntary head turns, guinea pigs make highly accurate compensatory eye movements that occur with zero or even negative latencies with respect to the onset of the provoking head movements. Furthermore, the anticipatory eye movements occur in animals with bilateral peripheral vestibular lesions, thus confirming that they have an extra vestibular origin. This discovery suggests the possibility that anticipatory responses might also occur in other species including humans and non-human primates, but have been overlooked and mistakenly identified as being produced by the VOR. This review will compare primate and guinea pig vestibular physiology in light of these new findings. A unified model of vestibular and cerebellar pathways will be presented that is consistent with current data in primates and guinea pigs. The model is capable of accurately simulating compensatory eye movements to active head turns (anticipatory responses) and to passive head perturbations (VOR induced eye movements) in guinea pigs and in human subjects who use coordinated eye and head movements to shift gaze direction in space. Anticipatory responses provide new evidence and opportunities to study the role of extra vestibular signals in motor control and sensory-motor transformations. Exercises that employ voluntary head turns are frequently used to improve visual stability in patients with vestibular hypofunction. Thus, a deeper understanding of the origin and physiology of anticipatory responses could suggest new translational approaches to rehabilitative training of patients with bilateral vestibular loss.
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Affiliation(s)
- W M King
- Department of Otolaryngology and the Kresge Hearing Research Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
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49
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Proske U, Gandevia SC. The proprioceptive senses: their roles in signaling body shape, body position and movement, and muscle force. Physiol Rev 2013; 92:1651-97. [PMID: 23073629 DOI: 10.1152/physrev.00048.2011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 992] [Impact Index Per Article: 90.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
This is a review of the proprioceptive senses generated as a result of our own actions. They include the senses of position and movement of our limbs and trunk, the sense of effort, the sense of force, and the sense of heaviness. Receptors involved in proprioception are located in skin, muscles, and joints. Information about limb position and movement is not generated by individual receptors, but by populations of afferents. Afferent signals generated during a movement are processed to code for endpoint position of a limb. The afferent input is referred to a central body map to determine the location of the limbs in space. Experimental phantom limbs, produced by blocking peripheral nerves, have shown that motor areas in the brain are able to generate conscious sensations of limb displacement and movement in the absence of any sensory input. In the normal limb tendon organs and possibly also muscle spindles contribute to the senses of force and heaviness. Exercise can disturb proprioception, and this has implications for musculoskeletal injuries. Proprioceptive senses, particularly of limb position and movement, deteriorate with age and are associated with an increased risk of falls in the elderly. The more recent information available on proprioception has given a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying these senses as well as providing new insight into a range of clinical conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Uwe Proske
- Department of Physiology, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
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50
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McCall AA, Moy JD, Puterbaugh SR, DeMayo WM, Yates BJ. Responses of vestibular nucleus neurons to inputs from the hindlimb are enhanced following a bilateral labyrinthectomy. J Appl Physiol (1985) 2013; 114:742-51. [PMID: 23305979 DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.01389.2012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Vestibular nucleus neurons have been shown to respond to stimulation of afferents innervating the limbs. However, a limitation in the potential translation of these findings is that they were obtained from decerebrate or anesthetized animals. The goal of the present study was to determine whether stimulation of hindlimb nerves similarly affects vestibular nucleus neuronal activity in conscious cats, and whether the responsiveness of neurons to the stimuli is altered following a bilateral labyrinthectomy. In labyrinth-intact animals, the firing rate of 24/59 (41%) of the neurons in the caudal vestibular nucleus complex was affected by hindlimb nerve stimulation. Most responses were excitatory; the median response latency was 20 ms, but some units had response latencies as short as 10 ms. In the first week after a bilateral labyrinthectomy, the proportion of vestibular nucleus neurons that responded to hindlimb nerve stimulation increased slightly (to 24/55 or 44% of units). However, during the subsequent postlabyrinthectomy survival period, the proportion of vestibular nucleus neurons with hindlimb inputs increased significantly (to 30/49 or 61% of units). Stimuli to hindlimb nerves needed to elicit neuronal responses was consistently over three times the threshold for eliciting an afferent volley. These data show that inputs from hindlimb afferents smaller than those innervating muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs affect the processing of information in the vestibular nuclei, and that these inputs are enhanced following a bilateral labyrinthectomy. These findings have implications for the development of a limb neuroprosthetics device for the management of bilateral vestibular loss.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew A McCall
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
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