Affiliations: [a] Department of Neurology, Case Western Reserve University and Louis Stokes, Cleveland, OH, USA | [b] Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, USA | [x] Otological and Skull Base Surgery Department, S.M. delle Scotte Hospital, Siena, Italy | [y] Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Mark F. Walker, Department of Neurology, Louis Stokes Cleveland DVAMC, 10701 East Blvd., 127W, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA. Tel.: +1 216 421 3224; Fax: +1 216 231 3461; E-mail: mark.walker@case.edu
Abstract: The goal of this study was to assess the effect of amplitude and frequency predictability on the performance of the translational vestibulo-ocular reflex (tVOR). Eye movements were recorded in 5 subjects during continuous vertical translation that consisted of a series of segments with: 1) 3 amplitudes at constant frequency (2 Hz) or 2) 3 different frequencies (1.6, 2, 2.5 Hz). Stimulus changes were presented in a pseudo-random order. We found that there was little change in the tVOR immediately after an unexpected stimulus change, as if eye velocity were being driven more by an expectation based on previous steady-state motion than by current head translation. For amplitude transitions, only about 30% of the eventual response change was seen in the first half cycle. Similarly, a sudden change in translation frequency did not appear in eye velocity for 70 ms, compared to a 8 ms lag during similar yaw rotation. Finally, after a sudden large decrease in frequency, the eyes continued to track at the original higher frequency, resulting initially in an anti-compensatory tVOR acceleration. Our results elucidate further the complexity of the tVOR and show that motion prediction based on prior experience plays an important role in its response.
