Influence of adaptation upon the impulsive time constant of the human vestibulo-ocular reflex system. I. Theoretical...

From the impulse response of the human vestibulo-ocular reflex system the value of the long time constant T1 can be calculated in two different ways: (a) by plotting the decay of the response on log-linear graph paper; (b) by plotting the duration of the response against the logarithm of the impulse amplitude for various impulse amplitudes, i.e. the cupulometric method. Using mathematical models, with and without adaptation, we studied the effect of the two methods of calculation on the value of the response T1. The adaptation term was demonstrated to give a distinct reduction in the value of the response T1, compared with that of the cupular T1, especially when the cupulometric method (b) was used. The extent of this reduction was calculated.