Absence of Nonlinear Coupling Between Electric Vestibular Stimulation and Evoked Forces During Standing Balance

The vestibular system encodes motion and orientation of the head in space and is essential for negotiating in and interacting with the world. Recently, random waveform electric vestibular stimulation has become an increasingly common means of probing the vestibular system. However, many of the metho...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in human neuroscience 2021-03, Vol.15, p.631782-631782
Main Authors: Hannan, Kelci B, Todd, Makina K, Pearson, Nicole J, Forbes, Patrick A, Dakin, Christopher J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Balance
Bandwidths
Confidence intervals
coupling
electric vestibular stimulation
galvanic vestibular stimulation
Headspace
linearity
Neuroscience
Noise
Posture
Questionnaires
random waveform
Research methodology
vestibular
Vestibular system
Wavelet transforms
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The vestibular system encodes motion and orientation of the head in space and is essential for negotiating in and interacting with the world. Recently, random waveform electric vestibular stimulation has become an increasingly common means of probing the vestibular system. However, many of the methods used to analyze the behavioral response to this type of stimulation assume a linear relationship between frequencies in the stimulus and its associated response. Here we examine this stimulus-response frequency linearity to determine the validity of this assumption. Forty-five university-aged subjects stood on a force-plate for 4 min while receiving vestibular stimulation. To determine the linearity of the stimulus-response relationship we calculated the cross-frequency power coupling between a 0 and 25 Hz bandwidth limited white noise stimulus and induced postural responses, as measured using the horizontal forces acting at the feet. Ultimately, we found that, on average, the postural response to a random stimulus is linear across stimulation frequencies. This result supports the use of analysis methods that depend on the assumption of stimulus-response frequency linearity, such as coherence and gain, which are commonly used to analyze the body's response to random waveform electric stimuli.
ISSN:1662-5161
1662-5161
DOI:10.3389/fnhum.2021.631782