The object of this study was to investigate the scope of cognitive control over vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) performance during rotational vestibular stimulation. Human subjects, with head fixed to the body, were rotated in the dark through 20$ sp circ$ at 40$ sp circ$/s while trying to "look" at an earth-fixed target which was viewed straight ahead just before extinguishing the lights. During this rotation an apparent error of performance was systematically introduced by displacing this target at constant velocity through 12$ sp circ$, either in the same direction as the subject (Diminishing paradigm), or in the opposite direction (Augmenting paradigm). After cessation of rotation the target was re-illuminated and the subject allowed to see the final positional "error" of his/her oculomotor performance. During each trial they were asked either to try and CORRECT or NOT to CORRECT for the extrinsically induced "errors". In a subsequent, series of experiments, 2 hrs of synchronous rotation of the subject and the surrounding visual scene was used to produce adaptive attenuation of the VOR ($ approx$26%). The central component of the second experimental series was performance of the gaze stabilization test described above, conducted on the adapted subjects. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.23395 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Fadlallah, Hussein. |
| Contributors | Melvill-Jones, G. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Physiology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001494900, proquestno: MM12189, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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