Subliminal conditioning of vestibular perception generalizes within otolith organs

Keywan, Aram; Yassin, Gharam; Jahn, Klaus; Wühr, M

doi:10.1007/s00415-022-10982-7

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…We do not know whether perceptual enhancements would still be obtained with noise applied in a direction different from that of the motion stimuli. For instance, prolonged conditioning stimuli consisting of subliminal interaural translations reduced the thresholds not only for motion discrimination in the same direction but also in the naso-occipital direction (Keywan et al 2020b; Keywan et al 2022). However, these conditioning stimuli did not affect significantly the thresholds for yaw rotations (Keywan et al 2020b), indicating some selectivity for the otoliths.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, 10-minutes of conditioning stimuli consisting of high-amplitude stochastic yaw rotations (0.5-2.5 Hz; up to 300 deg/s 2 ) increased substantially yaw perceptual thresholds (Fitzpatrick and Watson 2015). By contrast, 20-minutes of conditioning stimuli consisting of small-amplitude, subliminal interaural translations (1 Hz sinusoid; 2 cm/s 2 ) significantly reduced the thresholds for motion discrimination along the same axis (Keywan et al 2020b), as well as along the naso-occipital axis (Keywan et al 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Enhancement of vestibular motion discrimination by small stochastic whole-body perturbations in young healthy humans

Scaleia

Lacquaniti

Zago

2022

Preprint

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Noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation has been shown to improve vestibular perception in healthy subjects. Here, we sought to obtain similar results using more natural stimuli consisting of small-amplitude motion perturbations of the whole body. Thirty participants were asked to report the perceived direction of antero-posterior sinusoidal motion on a MOOG platform. We compared the baseline perceptual thresholds with those obtained by applying small, stochastic perturbations at different power levels along the antero-posterior axis, symmetrically distributed around a zero-mean. At the population level, we found that the thresholds for all but the highest level of noise were significantly lower than the baseline threshold. At the individual level, the threshold was lower with at least one noise level than the threshold without noise in 87% of participants. Thus, small, stochastic oscillations of the whole body can increase the probability of detecting subthreshold vestibular signals, possibly due to stochastic resonance mechanisms. We suggest that, just as the external noise of the present experiments, also the spontaneous random oscillations of the body associated with standing posture are beneficial by enhancing vestibular thresholds with a mechanism similar to stochastic resonance. The results are also relevant from a clinical perspective, since they raise the possibility of improving motion perception in people with elevated thresholds due to aging or vestibulopathy by means of small-amplitude motion perturbations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Enhancement of vestibular motion discrimination by small stochastic whole-body perturbations in young healthy humans

Scaleia

Lacquaniti

Zago

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, 10-min of conditioning stimuli consisting of high-amplitude stochastic yaw rotations (up to 300 deg/s 2 ) increased yaw perceptual thresholds substantially (121). By contrast, 20-min of conditioning stimuli consisting of small-amplitude, subliminal interaural sinusoidal translations (2 cm/s 2 ) significantly reduced the thresholds for motion discrimination along the same axis (122), as well as along the naso-occipital axis (123). Also, 5-days of intensive roll-tilt training ameliorated the corresponding discrimination thresholds as well as postural sway, if performance feedback was given after each trial (124).…”

Section: Conditioning and Learningmentioning

confidence: 92%

Noise and vestibular perception of passive self-motion

2023

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Noise defined as random disturbances is ubiquitous in both the external environment and the nervous system. Depending on the context, noise can degrade or improve information processing and performance. In all cases, it contributes to neural systems dynamics. We review some effects of various sources of noise on the neural processing of self-motion signals at different stages of the vestibular pathways and the resulting perceptual responses. Hair cells in the inner ear reduce the impact of noise by means of mechanical and neural filtering. Hair cells synapse on regular and irregular afferents. Variability of discharge (noise) is low in regular afferents and high in irregular units. The high variability of irregular units provides information about the envelope of naturalistic head motion stimuli. A subset of neurons in the vestibular nuclei and thalamus are optimally tuned to noisy motion stimuli that reproduce the statistics of naturalistic head movements. In the thalamus, variability of neural discharge increases with increasing motion amplitude but saturates at high amplitudes, accounting for behavioral violation of Weber’s law. In general, the precision of individual vestibular neurons in encoding head motion is worse than the perceptual precision measured behaviorally. However, the global precision predicted by neural population codes matches the high behavioral precision. The latter is estimated by means of psychometric functions for detection or discrimination of whole-body displacements. Vestibular motion thresholds (inverse of precision) reflect the contribution of intrinsic and extrinsic noise to perception. Vestibular motion thresholds tend to deteriorate progressively after the age of 40 years, possibly due to oxidative stress resulting from high discharge rates and metabolic loads of vestibular afferents. In the elderly, vestibular thresholds correlate with postural stability: the higher the threshold, the greater is the postural imbalance and risk of falling. Experimental application of optimal levels of either galvanic noise or whole-body oscillations can ameliorate vestibular function with a mechanism reminiscent of stochastic resonance. Assessment of vestibular thresholds is diagnostic in several types of vestibulopathies, and vestibular stimulation might be useful in vestibular rehabilitation.

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“…Mit Hilfe einer nicht wahrnehmbaren, transmastoidalen galvanisch-vestibulären Rauschstimulation lassen sich Reflexe zur Haltungsregulation sowie die Stand- und Gangataxie bei Patienten mit chronischem Gleichgewichtsausfall effektiv verbessern 79 – 81 . Zuletzt bestehen Ansätze zur Therapie mittels subliminaler vestibulären Konditionierung 82 , 83 . In Folge länger anhaltender, schwacher Kopfbewegungen (auf einer Bewegungsplattform), stellt sich eine effektive Vergrößerung des vestibulären Sensitivitätsbereichs ein, die in Zukunft bei vestibulären Funktionseinbußen therapeutisch genutzt werden könnte ( Abb.…”

Section: Therapieunclassified

Gangstörungen bei Schwindelerkrankungen

Schniepp¹,

Möhwald²,

Wuehr³

2023

Nervenheilkunde

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ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEinschränkungen der Gehfähigkeit sind bei Schwindelerkrankungen häufig und determinieren Funktionalität und Mobilität der Patienten. Stürze und deren psychische und körperliche Folgen sind zudem wichtige Einflussfaktoren für soziale Teilhabe und Lebensqualität.Der vorliegende Übersichtsartikel informiert über die Möglichkeiten einer strukturierten Erfassung von Gangstörungsmustern bei Schwindel mit Nennung wichtiger differenzialdiagnostischer Aspekte. Zudem wird ein Konzept vorgestellt, mit dem Einschränkungen des Gehens in funktional relevante Bereiche unterteilt sind. Anhand dieses Konzepts werden im zweiten Teil des Artikels allgemeine Behandlungsoptionen der symptomatischen Therapie präsentiert. Diese umfassen neben physikalisch-medizinischen Basistherapien spezifischere Übungsformen des Gleichgewichts-, Koordinations- und Bewegungstrainings. In der Pharmakotherapie von Gangstörungen steht zumeist eine erkrankungsspezifische Zielsetzung im Vordergrund. Für die chronisch bilaterale vestibuläre Funktionsstörung bestehen zudem Ansätze der künstlichen Substitution bzw. Verstärkung.

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Subliminal conditioning of vestibular perception generalizes within otolith organs

Cited by 4 publications

References 16 publications

Enhancement of vestibular motion discrimination by small stochastic whole-body perturbations in young healthy humans

Enhancement of vestibular motion discrimination by small stochastic whole-body perturbations in young healthy humans

Noise and vestibular perception of passive self-motion

Gangstörungen bei Schwindelerkrankungen

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