The evaluation of gravitational recognition in patients with spinocerebellar degeneration using Listing’s plane

Abstract

Background: The thickness of Listing’s plane accurately reflects gravitational recognition, constructed through the integration of visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive sensory input in the neural integrator of the central nervous system. Spinocerebellar degeneration (SCD) is a progressive degenerative disease mainly involving the cerebellum and brainstem that leads to destabilize the gravitational recognition, and may thicken thickening of Listing’s plane.

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the gravitational recognition in response to positional change in patients with SCD, using the thickness of Listing’s plane as a parameter.

Materials and methods: In this prospective study, we evaluated the thickness of Listing’s plane in 21 consecutive patients with SCD and 32 healthy subjects in the seated and supine positions, and investigated the association with other neuro-otological examinations (electronystagmography including caloric test and posturography).

Results: We detected significant thickening of Listing’s plane in SCD patients only when they were in the seated position. The thickness of Listing’s plane correlated with neither the caloric response nor Romberg’s ratio or the total center of the pressure path length.

Conclusions and significance: The thickness of Listing’s plane could be a useful parameter for assessing a gravity-oriented internal model in SCD patients.

Chinese abstract

背景：Listing平面厚度准确地反映了引力识别, 通过视觉、前庭和本体感觉输入在中枢神经系统的神经整合器中的整合来构建。脊髓小脑变性（SCD）是一种进行性退行性疾病, 主要累及小脑和脑干, 导致不稳定的重力识别, 并可能使Listing平面变厚。

目的：以Listing平面厚度为参数, 对SCD患者位置变化时的重力识别进行评估。

材料和方法：在本前瞻性研究中, 我们评估了21例SCD患者和32名健康受试者在坐位和仰卧位的Listing平面厚度, 并将其与其它神经耳科检查（包括热测试和姿势描记术）进行了对比研究。

结果：只有当SCD患者坐着的时候, 我们才发现其平面明显增厚。Listing平面的厚度与热量响应、罗姆伯格比率、压力路径长度的总中心都没有关系。

结论与意义：Listing平面厚度可作为评估SCD患者重力导向内模型的一个有用参数。

Keywords:

• Listing’s plane
• caloric response
• posturography
• gravity
• head orientation
• spinocerebellar degeneration

Acknowledgements

The authors thank physicians in our neurology department for cooperating with sample collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP17K11314.