Evidence for a vestibular input contributing to dynamic head stabilization in man

Horizontal head movements in response to unpredictable horizontal oscillations of the trunk were studied in 6 patients lacking vestibular function and in 6 normal subjects. In order to obtain compensatory (i.e. stabilizing with respect to earth) head movements, all subjects were required to look at an earth-fixed target, using their eyes and head. The turning points (maxima and minima) were determined from head and trunk position records. It was found that normal subjects reversed the direction of head movements in advance of trunk movements (mean lead = 82 ms) whereas the patients reversed head direction after the trunk (mean lag = 169 ms). The coherence function between head and trunk movements, measured with a spectral analyser in an additional labyrinthineless patient, was considerably lower than in normal controls. It is concluded that patients lacking vestibular function have impaired stabilization of the head in space, which can be taken as indirect evidence of the existence of active dynamic vestibulo-collic reflex (VCR) mechanisms in normal man. The lead found in normal subjects, notwithstanding the unpredictability of the stimuli, may reflect the detection of early acceleration signals by the vestibular apparatus to organize compensatory head movements.