Sustained deviation of torsional eye position associated with transient semicircular canal stimulation

Abstract

Background

Vestibular stimulation causes postural unsteadiness accompanied by a sensation of tilt.

Aims/Objectives

The mechanism of the sensation of tilt needs to be assessed by accurate calculation of the rotational axis of torsional eye position under various vestibular stimulations.

Material and Methods

Twenty-two healthy subjects participated in the study. Thirteen subjects underwent bilateral vestibular stimulation by on-axis yaw rotation under various head positions, and eighteen subjects underwent unilateral vestibular stimulation by caloric irrigation under various head positions. Listing’s Plane was plotted for the eye movement data obtained by three-dimensional video-oculography.

Results

The offset of Listing’s Plane showed sustained deviation of torsional eye position that was more prominent in head positions that stimulated lateral semicircular canals more than vertical semicircular canals. There was a less prominent and directionally reversed offset in head positions that stimulated vertical canals more than lateral semicircular canals.

Conclusion and Significance

The sustained torsional eye position was validated by accurate assessment using Listing’s Plane. The mechanism behind the deviation may be due to a combination of multiple anatomical components within the vestibular apparatus, with potentially stronger influence from lateral semicircular canals.

Chinese Abstract

背景: 前庭刺激会导致姿势不稳定并伴有倾斜感。

目的: 需要通过精确计算来评估在各种前庭刺激下扭转眼睛位置的旋转轴而产生的倾斜感觉的机制。

材料和方法: 22 名健康受试者参与了该研究。 十三名受试者在不同头部位置下通过轴上偏航旋转接受双侧前庭刺激, 并且十八名受试者在不同头部位置接受了热量灌注的单侧前庭刺激。 Listing平面是通过三维视频眼图仪获得的眼动数据绘制的。

结果: Listing平面的偏移表明扭转眼位置的持续偏差在头位更突出, 对侧半规管的刺激大于垂直半规管。 头部位置有不太明显且方向相反的偏移, 对垂直半规管的刺激多于侧半规管。

结论及意义: 持续扭转眼位通过使用Listing平面准确评估并得到验证。 偏差背后的机制可能是前庭装置内的多种解剖组件共同作用的结果, 侧半规管的潜在影响更大。

Keywords:

• Vestibulo-ocular reflex
• otolith-ocular reflex
• listing’s plane
• torsional deviation
• rotation
• caloric

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants, Yota Shinozuka and Jion Miyaike for contributing to the participant recruitment and data analysis, the experts of both medical and engineering fields for providing advice, especially the staff of Parafeed Corporation, FOVE Inc, Dr. Yuriko Sugiuchi.

Disclosure statement

The head-mounted display and the software for display and analysis were kindly lent by Parafeed Corporation.

Data availability statement

The algorithms for calculations used in the present study are openly available in Figshare at https://figshare.com/ [https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24239971].

The R scripts used in this study are openly available in Zenodo at https://zenodo.org [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8404585].

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science;

This work was supported by the JSPS KAKENHI under Grant [number JP21K09557]; and JST SPRING under Grant [number JPMJSP2120].