Abstract
Visual stabilisation of body sway in a patient with severe deficits of the vestibular system (due to gentamicin treatment) and the somatosensory system (due to polyneuropathy) was studied. With eyes open the patient was able to stand and walk slowly. With eyes closed he lost balance within one second. In order to optimise visual stabilisation he intuitively searched for nearby visual targets. His postural sway was recorded using posturography. His balance performance deteriorated significantly beyond a distance of 1 m between the eyes and the surrounding objects and with visual acuity below 0.3 (experimentally achieved with semitransparent plastic foils). With flicker illumination of decreasing frequencies of the visual surround he needed at least a visual input rate of 17 Hz in order to maintain an upright body position. The data provide clinical evidence for rapid visuo-spinal control of posture.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Amblard B., Crémieux J., Marchand A. R., Carblanc A. Lateral orientation and stabilization of human stance: static versus dynamic visual cues. Exp Brain Res. 1985;61(1):21–37. doi: 10.1007/BF00235617. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Bles W., Kapteyn T. S., Brandt T., Arnold F. The mechanism of physiological height vertigo. II. Posturography. Acta Otolaryngol. 1980 May-Jun;89(5-6):534–540. doi: 10.3109/00016488009127171. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Bronstein A. M. Suppression of visually evoked postural responses. Exp Brain Res. 1986;63(3):655–658. doi: 10.1007/BF00237488. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Nashner L. M., Black F. O., Wall C., 3rd Adaptation to altered support and visual conditions during stance: patients with vestibular deficits. J Neurosci. 1982 May;2(5):536–544. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.02-05-00536.1982. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Nashner L., Berthoz A. Visual contribution to rapid motor responses during postural control. Brain Res. 1978 Jul 14;150(2):403–407. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(78)90291-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Vidal P. P., Berthoz A., Millanvoye M. Difference between eye closure and visual stabilization in the control of posture in man. Aviat Space Environ Med. 1982 Feb;53(2):166–170. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]