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Biomedical subjects

B de Graaf

Publications and source records attributed to B de Graaf.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Influence of visual, vestibular, cervical, and somatosensory tilt information on ocular rotation and perception of the horizontal.

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 reinterpretation of our data for normal subjects possible.

Adult↗

The Aubert-Fleischl paradox does appear in visually induced self-motion.

An experiment was set up to investigate the possible influence of oculomotor activity on experienced speed of circular vection. With the standard lined inner wall of an optokinetic drum as stimulus, we found that subjects, sequentially exposed to periods with or without fixation point, experienced an increment in speed of circular vection when the eyes were kept stationary as compared to when optokinetic nystagmus occurred. In a control condition, however, where the influence of optokinetic nystagmus vs fixed gaze on the speed of circular vection was measured separately, the effect was not significant. These findings might explain a discrepancy found in the literature.

Adult↗

Ocular rotation and perception of the horizontal under static tilt conditions in patients without labyrinthine function.

In a previous study (1) it was found that in healthy subjects Ocular (Counter) Rotation is mainly due to otolith stimulation and only to a minor extent induced by slanted visual structures. Stimulation of the neck by tilting the trunk laterally upwards did not result in a systematic rotation of the eyes. In the present study it was found that subjects with bilateral loss of vestibular function showed a higher visually induced ocular rotation. Tilting the head (cervical stimulation) or the whole body (somatosensory stimulation) also led to a considerable OCR, demonstrating substitution of other sensory modalities for the loss of vestibular function. Estimates of the subjective horizontal were noisy, demonstrating the lack of an adequate gravitational reference signal.

Ear, Inner↗

Angular velocity, not temporal frequency determines circular vection.

This paper shows that the experienced speed of circular vection depends on stimulus speed, not on stimulus temporal frequency. But why would anyone think the contrary? The point is that many modelers in the field of motion perception believe that perceived speed is determined by temporal frequency. Moreover, the optokinetic behaviour of the fly is said to be dependent on the temporal frequency, not the speed, of the stimulus pattern (Reichardt, 1987). It was the aim of the present experiment to test the notion that the experienced speed of circular vection is proportional to stimulus velocity information, which is carried by the temporal and the spatial characteristics of light.

Adult↗

The perception of object motion during smooth pursuit eye movements: adjacency is not a factor contributing to the Filehne illusion.

During smooth pursuit eye movement performance often an illusory motion of background objects is perceived. This so called Filehne illusion has been quantified and explored by Mack and Herman [Q. J.exp. Psychol. 25, 71-84 (1973); Vision Res. 18, 55-62 (1978)]. According to them two independent factors contribute to the Filehne illusion: (1) a subject relative factor, viz. the underregistration of pursuit eye movements by the perceptual system, and (2) an object relative factor, viz. adjacency of the pursued fixation point and the background stimulus. The evidence of the present experiment supports the former but rejects the latter as a contributing factor. Instead of the concept of adjacency, an alternative theoretical extension of the subject relative factor is offered.

Adult↗

Arthrokinetic information affects linear self-motion perception.

A sensation of linear self-motion can be induced in a blindfolded stationary sitting subject, who keeps contact with a linearly moving platform (acceleration 0.1 m/s2) in the frontoparallel plane by means of a hand-over-hand walking action. When discordant suprathreshold vestibular information from the otoliths is added by moving the subject laterally (acceleration 0.1 m/s2) in the same direction as the platform (acceleration of the platform 0.2 m/s2, so the arthrokinetic stimulus is also an acceleration of 0.1 m/s2, but into the opposite direction), the arthrokinetic information was found to have a predominant effect on the perceived direction of self-motion.

Humans↗

Effects of long duration centrifugation on head movements and a psychomotor task.

Previous investigations suggest strong similarities between aftereffects of an 1.5-hour 3 gx centrifuge run (Sickness Induced by Centrifugation; SIC) and the Space Adaptation Syndrome (SAS). Head movements proved to be especially nauseogenic in both cases. Until recently, during SIC experimentation, the performance of head movements was not adequately operationalized, which hampered a statistical evaluation. For this purpose, a test was designed by which head movements in four directions (left, right, up, and down) were provoked and registered, once before and once after a 1-h 3 g centrifuge run. Subjects had to execute these head movements in order to perform well on a psychomotor task. The results indicate that the test described is sensitive in discriminating between subjects who are seriously affected after a long duration centrifugation and those who are not. Because differences in performance were found only on those parts of the task in which head movements were involved, objective evidence is obtained in favour of a vestibular cause in the etiology of SIC.

Centrifugation↗