TY - JOUR
T1 - Electrovestibulography (EVestG) application for measuring vestibular response to horizontal pursuit and saccadic eye movements
AU - Ashiri, Mehrangiz
AU - Lithgow, Brian
AU - Suleiman, Abdelbaset
AU - Mansouri, Behzad
AU - Moussavi, Zahra
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was partially funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Award number: 950-229260) and Mitacs Accelerate Program (Award number: IT15641).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Nalecz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences
PY - 2021/4/1
Y1 - 2021/4/1
N2 - Vestibular effects linked to eye movements have been extensively investigated, however, the effect of eye movements on the vestibular is relatively unknown. In this study, vestibular responses to horizontal pursuit and saccadic eye movements were examined in healthy individuals. Visual stimuli were presented to nineteen participants (27.7 ± 5.74 (SD) years, 11 female) using a virtual reality headset whilst the vestibular responses were simultaneously recorded using Electrovestibulography (EVestG). The average field potentials (FP) of three segments 1) prior to (Pre-Background), 2) during (Movement), and 3) after ceasing the visual stimulus (Post-Background) were extracted and the action potential (AP) area used as one feature. Both pursuit and saccadic eye movements resulted in a smaller average AP area during the Movement compared to Pre-Background (P = 0.002). Pursuit and saccadic eye movements also resulted in significantly longer time intervals between the low frequency (approximately 10 Hz) modulations of FPs detected during Movement compared to the Pre-Background (P ≤ 0.001). Moreover, a comparison between rightward and leftward saccades indicated no significant difference between the two directions for the FP and time interval features (P > 0.37). These findings suggest that pursuit and saccade eye movements inhibit the activity of both the central (postulated efferent pathways) and peripheral (afferent) vestibular system. We hypothesize that the purpose of this vestibular inhibition is to limit the vestibulo-ocular reflex and optokinetic response. Additionally, the insensitivity of the vestibular system to the saccade directions with a stationary head provides anecdotal evidence on the bilateral efferent projections to the vestibular afferent and hair cells.
AB - Vestibular effects linked to eye movements have been extensively investigated, however, the effect of eye movements on the vestibular is relatively unknown. In this study, vestibular responses to horizontal pursuit and saccadic eye movements were examined in healthy individuals. Visual stimuli were presented to nineteen participants (27.7 ± 5.74 (SD) years, 11 female) using a virtual reality headset whilst the vestibular responses were simultaneously recorded using Electrovestibulography (EVestG). The average field potentials (FP) of three segments 1) prior to (Pre-Background), 2) during (Movement), and 3) after ceasing the visual stimulus (Post-Background) were extracted and the action potential (AP) area used as one feature. Both pursuit and saccadic eye movements resulted in a smaller average AP area during the Movement compared to Pre-Background (P = 0.002). Pursuit and saccadic eye movements also resulted in significantly longer time intervals between the low frequency (approximately 10 Hz) modulations of FPs detected during Movement compared to the Pre-Background (P ≤ 0.001). Moreover, a comparison between rightward and leftward saccades indicated no significant difference between the two directions for the FP and time interval features (P > 0.37). These findings suggest that pursuit and saccade eye movements inhibit the activity of both the central (postulated efferent pathways) and peripheral (afferent) vestibular system. We hypothesize that the purpose of this vestibular inhibition is to limit the vestibulo-ocular reflex and optokinetic response. Additionally, the insensitivity of the vestibular system to the saccade directions with a stationary head provides anecdotal evidence on the bilateral efferent projections to the vestibular afferent and hair cells.
KW - EVestG
KW - Pursuit
KW - Saccade
KW - Vestibular
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105590558&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.bbe.2021.03.007
DO - 10.1016/j.bbe.2021.03.007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85105590558
SN - 0208-5216
VL - 41
SP - 527
EP - 539
JO - Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering
JF - Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering
IS - 2
ER -