Multi-modal vestibular perception

描述(申请人提供)：头晕和眩晕是常见的临床问题，根源于异常的运动感觉。前庭系统的临床测试和对前庭生理的了解历来侧重于简单的刺激和反射功能。然而，前庭反射功能与知觉症状的相关性较差。在其他感觉形式中，知觉测试是临床研究的一线。例如，视力评估通常始于让患者报告他们所能看到的内容，而听力评估则始于测试患者所能听到的内容。然而，对前庭知觉的理解还没有达到临床知觉测试的阶段。 很有意义。以前关于前庭知觉的大部分工作都集中在知觉阈值的测量上--本质上是确定一个人是否能在黑暗的房间里感觉到一个孤立的运动的方向。这种情况没有涉及临床上更相关的情况，即每个运动都发生在正在进行的运动的背景下，包括平移和旋转成分以及其他感觉刺激，如运动和本体感觉。目前的建议旨在通过在适当的背景下检查人类的运动知觉，将对人类运动知觉的理解推进到临床和生理相关的领域。该项目还将测试心理测量方法，以确定哪种方法最适合测量前庭偏差。头部旋转和平移的一些组合比较良性，在行走时可能会发生，而其他组合可能表明可能会导致摔倒的扰动。该项目将研究正在进行的运动如何影响运动感知，从而使与先前相似的运动不太可能被感知到。人们做大的自愿动作而不会迷失方向是很常见的，比如走路时看着旁边的朋友说话。这对我们来说可能很容易 因为我们在以身体为中心而不是以头部为中心的参照系中感知我们的运动，即使前庭器官在头部。这种感觉变化是如何发生的，将被研究用于航向估计。视觉刺激也提供了自我运动感知的强大线索，特别是当可见运动涉及大部分视野和 持续几秒钟。这种感觉通常被称为视觉，在一些患者群体中也可能与运动敏感度有关。将开发一种通过将向量与实际运动进行比较来量化向量的方法。这将有助于确定是否等同地感知向量和自我运动，以及证明一种客观的评估视觉运动敏感性的方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Dizziness and vertigo are common clinical problems rooted in abnormal perception of movement. Clinical testing of the vestibular system and understanding of vestibular physiology has historically focused on simple stimuli and reflex function. However, vestibular reflex function is poorly correlated with perceptual symptoms. In other sensory modalities perceptual testing is the first line of clinical investigation. For instane an evaluation of vision usually begins with having the patient report what they are able to see and evaluation of hearing begins with testing what the patient is able to hear. However, understanding of vestibular perception is not yet at a state where perceptual testing is clinically meaningful. Most of the previous work on vestibular perception has focused on measurement of perceptual thresholds - essentially determining if someone can sense the direction of an isolated movement in a dark room. This situation does not address the more clinically relevant situations in which each movement occurs in the context of ongoing motion which include both translation and rotation components as well as other sensory stimuli such as motor and proprioception. The current proposal aims to advance understanding of human motion perception into a clinically and physiologically relevant arena by examining this perception in an appropriate context. The project will also test psychometric methods to determine which is most appropriate for measurement of vestibular biases. Some combinations of head rotation and translation are more benign and likely to occur during ambulation while others may be indicative of a perturbation that may lead to a fall. The project will look how proceeding movements influence motion perception such that a movement that is similar to a previous one is less likely to be perceived. It is common for people to make large voluntary movements without becoming disoriented, such as looking to the side to talk to a friend while walking. This may be easy for us because we perceive our motion in a body-centered reference frame rather than head-centered one, even though the vestibular organs are in the head. How this sensory transformation occurs will be investigated for heading estimation. Visual stimuli also provide a powerful cue to self-motion perception, especially when the visible motion involves a large part of the visual field and persists for several seconds. This perception is often referred to as vection and may also be related to motion sensitivity in some patient populations. A method of quantifying vection by comparing it with actual motion will be developed. This will be useful for determining if vection and self-motion are perceived equivalently as well as proving an objective method of assessing visual motion sensitivity.