Orienting eye movements and nystagmus produced by translation while rotating (TWR)

Sinusoidal translation while rotating at constant angular velocity about a vertical axis (translation while rotating, TWR) produces centripetal and translational accelerations along the direction of translation and an orthogonal Coriolis acceleration due to the translation in the rotating frame. Thus, a Coriolis acceleration is produced along the bitemporal axis when oscillating along the naso-occipital axis, and along the naso-occipital axis when oscillating along the bitemporal axis. Together, these components generate an elliptically rotating acceleration vector that revolves around the head in the direction of rotation at the frequency of oscillation. Here we studied the orienting and compensatory responses of rabbits during TWR. Combinations of centripetal and translational accelerations were held constant at 0.5 g, and oscillation frequencies were varied from 0.01-0.33 Hz. The amplitude of the Coriolis acceleration increased with the frequency of translation. Naso-occipital translation caused vergence and pitch at all frequencies and roll at higher frequencies, and bitemporal translation produced roll at all frequencies and vergence and pitch at higher frequencies. The sensitivity of each ocular orienting component to linear acceleration was comparable across the different oscillation frequencies. TWR also induced continuous yaw nystagmus with slow phase velocity in the direction of rotation of the acceleration vector. Thresholds for appearance of nystagmus were 0.05 Hz, corresponding to a Coriolis acceleration of 0.06 g. Mean slow phase velocity for a rotating linear acceleration vector produced by 0.5 g along the translation axis and 0.34 g of Coriolis acceleration along the orthogonal axis were approximately 9 degrees /s. Eye velocities during TWR were similar to those generated by off-vertical axis rotation (OVAR), but were opposite in direction with regard to head rotation, following the direction of the rotating acceleration vector in both paradigms. Both are produced by activation of velocity storage in the vestibular system. One important difference between TWR and OVAR is that the head is always upright with regard to gravity during TWR. We speculate that the brain may use these low amplitude rotating linear accelerations to generate eye velocities that help to orient gaze when making turns during normal locomotion.