Influence of Visual, Vestibular, Cervical, and Somatosensory Tilt Information on Ocular Rotation and Perception of the Horizontal

Abstract

By combining a tilting chair and a tilting room we investigated the subjective horizontal (SH) and ocular counterrotation (OCR) as a function of body tilt, trunk tilt, and tilt of a visual frame. Significant influences of (isolated or combined) vestibular and visual information were found, but no influence of neck proprioception. A second and similar experiment, however, now conducted with subjects devoid of labyrinthine function, suggested a contribution of the neck as well as of somatosensory origin. This made a reinter-pretation of our data for normal subjects possible.