scholarly journals Self-motion facilitates echo-acoustic orientation in humans

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 140185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludwig Wallmeier ◽  
Lutz Wiegrebe
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Vestibular Input ◽  
Space Technique ◽  
Acoustic Space ◽  
Body Self ◽  
Self Motion ◽  
Blind Humans

The ability of blind humans to navigate complex environments through echolocation has received rapidly increasing scientific interest. However, technical limitations have precluded a formal quantification of the interplay between echolocation and self-motion. Here, we use a novel virtual echo-acoustic space technique to formally quantify the influence of self-motion on echo-acoustic orientation. We show that both the vestibular and proprioceptive components of self-motion contribute significantly to successful echo-acoustic orientation in humans: specifically, our results show that vestibular input induced by whole-body self-motion resolves orientation-dependent biases in echo-acoustic cues. Fast head motions, relative to the body, provide additional proprioceptive cues which allow subjects to effectively assess echo-acoustic space referenced against the body orientation. These psychophysical findings clearly demonstrate that human echolocation is well suited to drive precise locomotor adjustments. Our data shed new light on the sensory–motor interactions, and on possible optimization strategies underlying echolocation in humans.

The directions of nystagmus and apparent self-motion evoked by caloric tests and angular accelerations

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 349-355
Author(s):  
Ognyan I. Kolev
Keyword(s):  
Motion Perception ◽  
Frontal Plane ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Caloric Stimulation ◽  
Infrared Video ◽  
Axis Rotation ◽  
Self Motion

Purpose: To further investigate the direction of (I) nystagmus and (II) self-motion perception induced by two stimuli: (a) caloric vestibular stimulations and (b) a sudden halt during vertical axis rotation. Subjects and methods: Twelve normal humans received caloric stimulation at 44°C, 30°C, and 20°C while in a supine position with the head inclined 30° upwards. In a second test they were rotated around the vertical axis with the head randomly placed in two positions: tilted 30° forward or tilted 60° backward, at a constant velocity of 90°/sec for 2 minutes and then suddenly stopped. After both tests they were asked to describe their sensations of self-motion. Eye movements were recorded with an infrared video-technique. Results: Caloric stimulation evoked only horizontal nystagmus in all subjects and induced a non-uniform complex perception of angular in frontal and transverse planes (the former dominated) and linear movements along the antero-posterior axis (sinking dominated) of the subject's coordinates. The self-motion was felt with the whole body or with a part of the body. Generally the perception evoked by cold (30°C) and warm (44°C) calorics was similar, although there were some differences. The stronger stimulus (20°C) evoked not only quantitative but also qualitative differences in perception. The abrupt halt of rotation induced self-motion perception and nystagmus only in the plane of rotation. The self-motion was felt with the whole body. Conclusion: There was no difference in the nystagmus evoked by caloric stimulation and a sudden halt of vertical axis rotation (in head positions to stimulate the horizontal canals); however, the two stimuli evoked different perceptions of self-motion. Calorics provoked the sensation of self-rotation in the frontal plane and linear motion, which did not correspond to the direction of nystagmus, as well as arcing and a reset phenomenon during angular and linear self-motion, caloric-induced self-motion can be felt predominantly or only with a part of the body, depending on the self-motion intensity. The findings indicate that, unlike the self-motion induced by sudden halt of vertical axis rotation, several mechanisms take part in generating caloric-induced self-motion.

scholarly journals Distinct Representations of Body and Head motion are Dynamically Encoded by Purkinje cell Populations in the Macaque Cerebellum

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omid A Zobeiri ◽  
Kathleen E Cullen
Keyword(s):  
Postural Control ◽  
Purkinje Cells ◽  
Body Position ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Motion ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Head Motion ◽  
Response Dynamics ◽  
Dynamic Representation ◽  
Self Motion

The ability to accurately control our posture and perceive spatial orientation during self-motion requires knowledge of the motion of both the head and body. However, whereas the vestibular sensors and nuclei directly encode head motion, no sensors directly encode body motion. Instead, the integration of vestibular and neck proprioceptive inputs is necessary to transform vestibular information into the body-centric reference frame required for postural control. The anterior vermis of the cerebellum is thought to play a key role in this transformation, yet how its Purkinje cells integrate these inputs or what information they dynamically encode during self-motion remains unknown. Here we recorded the activity of individual anterior vermis Purkinje cells in alert monkeys during passively applied whole-body, body-under-head, and head-on-body rotations. Most neurons dynamically encoded an intermediate representation of self-motion between head and body motion. Notably, these neurons responded to both vestibular and neck proprioceptive stimulation and showed considerable heterogeneity in their response dynamics. Furthermore, their vestibular responses demonstrated tuning in response to changes in head-on-body position. In contrast, a small remaining percentage of neurons sensitive only to vestibular stimulation unambiguously encoded head-in-space motion across conditions. Using a simple population model, we establish that combining responses from 40 Purkinje cells can explain the responses of their target neurons in deep cerebellar nuclei across all self-motion conditions. We propose that the observed heterogeneity in Purkinje cells underlies the cerebellum's capacity to compute the dynamic representation of body motion required to ensure accurate postural control and perceptual stability in our daily lives.

scholarly journals The A-Effect and Global Motion

Vision ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Pearl Guterman ◽  
Robert Allison
Keyword(s):  
Optic Flow ◽  
Object Motion ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Tilt ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Global Motion ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
Self Motion ◽  
Gravitational Vertical

When the head is tilted, an objectively vertical line viewed in isolation is typically perceived as tilted. We explored whether this shift also occurs when viewing global motion displays perceived as either object-motion or self-motion. Observers stood and lay left side down while viewing (1) a static line, (2) a random-dot display of 2-D (planar) motion or (3) a random-dot display of 3-D (volumetric) global motion. On each trial, the line orientation or motion direction were tilted from the gravitational vertical and observers indicated whether the tilt was clockwise or counter-clockwise from the perceived vertical. Psychometric functions were fit to the data and shifts in the point of subjective verticality (PSV) were measured. When the whole body was tilted, the perceived tilt of both a static line and the direction of optic flow were biased in the direction of the body tilt, demonstrating the so-called A-effect. However, we found significantly larger shifts for the static line than volumetric global motion as well as larger shifts for volumetric displays than planar displays. The A-effect was larger when the motion was experienced as self-motion compared to when it was experienced as object-motion. Discrimination thresholds were also more precise in the self-motion compared to object-motion conditions. Different magnitude A-effects for the line and motion conditions—and for object and self-motion—may be due to differences in combining of idiotropic (body) and vestibular signals, particularly so in the case of vection which occurs despite visual-vestibular conflict.

scholarly journals Reafference and the origin of the self in early nervous system evolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gáspár Jékely ◽  
Peter Godfrey-Smith ◽  
Fred Keijzer
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Single Unit ◽  
The Body ◽  
Corollary Discharge ◽  
The Self ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Flow Sensing ◽  
Nervous System Evolution ◽  
Body Motility ◽  
Body Self

Discussions of the function of early nervous systems usually focus on a causal flow from sensors to effectors, by which an animal coordinates its actions with exogenous changes in its environment. We propose, instead, that much early sensing was reafferent; it was responsive to the consequences of the animal's own actions. We distinguish two general categories of reafference – translocational and deformational – and use these to survey the distribution of several often-neglected forms of sensing, including gravity sensing, flow sensing, and proprioception. We discuss sensing of these kinds in sponges, ctenophores, placozoans, cnidarians and bilaterians. Reafference is ubiquitous, as ongoing action, especially whole-body motility, will almost inevitably influence the senses. Corollary discharge – a pathway or circuit by which an animal tracks its own actions and their reafferent consequences – is not a necessary feature of reafferent sensing but a later- evolving mechanism. We also argue for the importance of reafferent sensing to the evolution of the body-self, a form of organization that enables an animal to sense and act as a single unit.

scholarly journals Simple spike dynamics of Purkinje cells in the macaque vestibulo-cerebellum during passive whole-body self-motion

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (6) ◽  
pp. 3232-3238
Author(s):  
Jean Laurens ◽  
Dora E. Angelaki
Keyword(s):  
Linear Acceleration ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Otolith Organs ◽  
Response Dynamics ◽  
Position Signal ◽  
Selective Population ◽  
Body Self ◽  
Motor Actions ◽  
Self Motion

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.

Response of vestibular neurons to head rotations in vertical planes. II. Response to neck stimulation and vestibular-neck interaction

1988 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 1765-1778 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Kasper ◽  
R. H. Schor ◽  
V. J. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Head Rotation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Head Movements ◽  
Body Tilt ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Vestibular Input ◽  
Response Dynamics ◽  
Neck Input ◽  
Wide Range

1. We have studied the responses of neurons in the lateral and descending vestibular nuclei of decerebrate cats to stimulation of neck receptors, produced by rotating the body in vertical planes with the head stationary. The responses to such neck stimulation were compared with the responses to vestibular stimulation produced by whole-body tilt, described in the preceding paper. 2. After determining the optimal vertical plane of neck rotation (response vector orientation), the dynamics of the neck response were studied over a frequency range of 0.02-1 Hz. The majority of the neurons were excited by neck rotations that brought the chin toward the ipsilateral side; most neurons responded better to roll than to pitch rotations. The typical neck response showed a low-frequency phase lead of 30 degrees, increasing to 60 degrees at higher frequencies, and a gain that increased about threefold per decade. 3. Neck input was found in about one-half of the vestibular-responsive neurons tested with vertical rotations. The presence of a neck response was correlated with the predominant vestibular input to these neurons; neck input was most prevalent on neurons with vestibular vector orientations near roll and receiving convergent vestibular input, either input from both ipsilateral vertical semicircular canals, or from canals plus the otolith organs. 4. Neurons with both vestibular and neck responses tend to have the respective orientation vectors pointing in opposite directions, i.e., a head tilt that produces an excitatory vestibular response would produce an inhibitory neck response. In addition, the gain components of these responses were similar. These results suggest that during head movements on a stationary body, these opposing neck and vestibular inputs will cancel each other. 5. Cancellation was observed in 12 out of 27 neurons tested with head rotation in the mid-frequency range. For most of the remaining neurons, the response to such a combined stimulus was greatly attenuated: the vestibular and neck interaction was largely antagonistic. 6. Neck response dynamics were similar to those of the vestibular input in many neurons, permitting cancellation to take place over a wide range of stimulus frequencies. Another pattern of interaction, observed in some neurons with canal input, produced responses to head rotation that had a relatively constant gain and remained in phase with position over the entire frequency range; such neurons possibly code head position in space.

Self-motion perception during conflicting visual-vestibular acceleration

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 267-272
Author(s):  
Masayuki Ishida ◽  
Hiroaki Fushiki ◽  
Hiroshi Nishida ◽  
Yukio Watanabe
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Angular Acceleration ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
The Body ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Large Field ◽  
Constant Acceleration ◽  
Conflicting Information ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Self Motion

Self-motion is known to be falsely perceived during exposure to the movement of visual surroundings. This illusory perception of visually-induced self-motion is known as "vection." The present study was conducted to examine the relative strengths of vection versus whole-body angular acceleration as they determine perceived self-rotation under conditions in which they individually provide conflicting information. Each subject was rotated for 90 s about a vertical axis at a constant acceleration, and a large-field visual surround in front of the subject was simultaneously rotated at a constant acceleration in the same direction, but at a magnitude of acceleration twice that of the body. This stimulus condition creates a sensory conflict between information from the vestibular/somatosensory systems and information from the visual system with respect to the direction of self-rotation. The subject eventually perceived self-acceleration in the direction of circular vection (CV), even though he or she was actually being accelerated in the direction opposite to CV. When the magnitude of contradictory chair acceleration exceeded the vestibular perceptual threshold, the onset latency of CV was significantly delayed. Our results suggest that visual information contributes to the perception of self-acceleration, and that illusory self-motion could overwhelm the feeling of self-acceleration due to inertial motion. CV would thus be a significant factor in determining spatial orientation in certain operational environments and flight conditions.

A Simple and Inexpensive Clinical Whole Body Counter

1976 ◽  
Vol 15 (05) ◽  
pp. 248-253
Author(s):  
A. K. Basu ◽  
S. K. Guha ◽  
B. N. Tandon ◽  
M. M. Gupta ◽  
M. ML. Rehani
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Vitro Assay ◽  
Body Counter ◽  
Optimum Parameters ◽  
Whole Body Counter ◽  
Single Detector ◽  
Background Index ◽  
Iodide Crystal

SummaryThe conventional radioisotope scanner has been used as a whole body counter. The background index of the system is 10.9 counts per minute per ml of sodium iodide crystal. The sensitivity and derived sensitivity parameters have been evaluated and found to be suitable for clinical studies. The optimum parameters for a single detector at two positions above the lying subject have been obtained. It has been found that for the case of 131I measurement it is possible to assay a source located at any point in the body with coefficient of variation less than 5%. To add to the versatility, a fixed geometry for in-vitro counting of large samples has been obtained. The retention values obtained by the whole body counter have been found to correlate with those obtained by in-vitro assay of urine and stool after intravenous administration of 51Cr-albumin.

Visualization of Invasion into the Body and Internal Diffusion of Nanoparticles

2008 ◽  
Vol 396-398 ◽  
pp. 569-572
Author(s):  
Fumio Watari ◽  
Shigeaki Abe ◽  
I.D. Rosca ◽  
Atsuro Yokoyama ◽  
Motohiro Uo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biomedical Applications ◽  
Fluorescent Microscopy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Internal Diffusion ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Body Level ◽  
Organ Level ◽  
Level 2 ◽  
Internal Body

Nanoparticles may invade directly into the internal body through the respiratory or digestive system and diffuse inside body. The behavior of nanoparticles in the internal body is also essential to comprehend for the realization of DDS. Thus it is necessary to reveal the internal dynamics for the proper treatments and biomedical applications of nanoparticles. In the present study the plural methods with different principles such as X-ray scanning analytical microscope (XSAM), MRI and Fluorescent microscopy were applied to enable the observation of the internal diffusion of micro/nanoparticles in the (1) whole body level, (2) inner organ level and (3) tissue and intracellular level. Chemical analysis was also done by ICP-AES for organs and compared with the results of XSAM mapping.

scholarly journals Making the choice between bioelectrical impedance measures for body hydration status assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry M. Davydov ◽  
Andrey Boev ◽  
Stas Gorbunov
Keyword(s):  
Body Schema ◽  
Bioelectrical Impedance ◽  
Information Criterion ◽  
The Body ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Hydration Status ◽  
Status Assessment ◽  
Best Fitting ◽  
Body Compartments ◽  
Fitting In

AbstractSituational or persistent body fluid deficit (i.e., de- or hypo-hydration) is considered a significant health risk factor. Bioimpedance analysis (BIA) has been suggested as an alternative to less reliable subjective and biochemical indicators of hydration status. The present study aimed to compare various BIA models in the prediction of direct measures of body compartments associated with hydration/osmolality. Fish (n = 20) was selected as a biological model for physicochemically measuring proximate body compartments associated with hydration such as water, dissolved proteins, and non-osseous minerals as the references or criterion points. Whole-body and segmental/local impedance measures were used to investigate a pool of BIA models, which were compared by Akaike Information Criterion in their ability to accurately predict the body components. Statistical models showed that ‘volumetric-based’ BIA measures obtained in parallel, such as distance2/Rp, could be the best approach in predicting percent of body moisture, proteins, and minerals in the whole-body schema. However, serially-obtained BIA measures, such as the ratio of the reactance to resistance and the resistance adjusted for distance between electrodes, were the best fitting in predicting the compartments in the segmental schema. Validity of these results should be confirmed on humans before implementation in practice.

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