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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 5, 2026

Using Eye-tracking to Assess the Relative Importance of Visual and Vestibular Input to Subcortical Motion Processing in the Roll Plane

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

Vestibular function drives gaze stability in locomoting macaques.

Oliver R Stanley¹, Rui-Han Wei¹, Skyler Thomas¹

¹Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience

|July 3, 2026

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

The vestibular system is crucial for stabilizing gaze and gait during locomotion. Bilateral vestibular loss in macaques significantly increased gait variability and gaze instability, revealing a recalibration of oculomotor control strategies.

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Last Updated: Jul 5, 2026

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Published on: August 22, 2025

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Published on: April 12, 2016

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Biomechanics
Sensory Systems

Background:

Locomotion generates head movements that can destabilize vision.
The vestibular system's role in gaze stabilization during primate locomotion is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the contribution of the vestibular system to gaze and gait stabilization during walking.
To compare locomotion and gaze control in normal and bilaterally vestibularly deficient macaques.

Main Methods:

Compared gait and gaze kinematics in normal and bilaterally vestibularly deficient (BVL) rhesus macaques.
Tested animals during treadmill and overground walking at various speeds.
Utilized computational modeling to analyze oculomotor control strategies.

Main Results:

BVL macaques exhibited significantly increased gait variability compared to normal macaques.
Vestibular loss led to pronounced gaze-stabilization deficits, with reduced and more variable eye movements.
BVL animals showed altered reorienting eye movements, suggesting increased tolerance for gaze-position error.

Conclusions:

Vestibular input is essential for stabilizing gaze and gait during natural locomotion.
Chronic vestibular loss induces a recalibration of gaze-control strategies, incorporating sensorimotor noise and elevated error thresholds.
These findings provide benchmarks for future interventions in vestibular disorders.