Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Using Eye-tracking to Assess the Relative Importance of Visual and Vestibular Input to Subcortical Motion Processing in the Roll Plane
Published on: August 22, 2025
Drift of visually induced optostatic torsion
Ulrika Sverkersten1, Jan Ygge, Tony Pansell
1Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division for Ophthalmology and Vision, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. ulrika.sverkersten@ste.ki.se
Purpose:
Compensatory ocular torsion has been found in response to static tilted visual stimuli. The purpose was to investigate if visually induced ocular torsion is maintained during continuous stimulation and to reinvestigate the effect of stimuli tilt angle.
Methods:
Eye movements were recorded in 19 healthy individuals using a 3-D video oculography system. One visual stimulus was used in the tests, a photographic image of a city scene with spatial clues relevant for body posture. The scenes were tilted counterclockwise around a central pivot point from 0 to 15 degrees (test A), from 0 to 30 degrees (test B), and from 0 to 45 degrees (test C). Each tilted stimulus position was held static for 4 min, 40 sec.
Results:
A compensatory torsional response was found in all subjects and test conditions. No significant difference was found between the different stimuli tilt angles. The torsional response was not maintained but drifted back towards the reference position.
Conclusions:
Visually induced ocular torsion in response to a static tilted scene is not maintained, but drifts back towards the initial reference position. Higher cognitive functions such as imagination and attention certainly have an influence on the outcome.
Related Concept Videos
Equilibrium and Balance
Torsion in Vector Calculus
The Vestibular System
Orthogonal Trajectories
Rotational Motion about a Fixed Axis
Inertial Frames of Reference

