The spatial orientation functions of the vestibular system, although clinically relevant, have received little attention compared to reflexes. In the proposed experiments, we intend to characterize the vestibular system's involvement in maintaining spatial constancy for movement planning as humans and primates are passively rotated or translated in three-dimensional (3D) space. This process, referred to as 'visuospatial updating' utilizes extra-retinal signals related to the intervening movement in order to change the end-goal of sensorimotor transformations for eye, hand or limb movements. Although vestibular signals have an important role in this process, spatial constancy has been mostly studied with saccadic ocular deviations, whereas little is currently known about the role of other sources of extra-retinal information. Thus, the long-term goal of these studies is to characterize the functional properties and neural basis for subcortical extra-retinal signals on spatial constancy, with a particular focus on vestibularly-driven mechanisms. Here we propose a series of behavioral and neurophysiological aims to characterize the vestibular system's involvement in visuospatial updating during memory-guided eye movements. Specifically, we will quantify the properties of these processes, as they relate to the numerous computational issues encountered when three-dimensional (3D) vestibular information must be combined with a two-dimensional (2D) retinotopic goal for a saccade. To investigate the neural basis of these interactions, we also propose to characterize visuospatial updating and vestibular memory-contingent saccades after reversible inactivation of each 1 of the 3 cortical eye fields, the lateral intraparietal area (LIP), the frontal eye fields (FEF) and the supplementary eye fields (SEF). Finally, we will also start characterizing the neural correlates of this function by testing whether visual receptive fields of LIP neurons shift during an imposed rotational/translational movement, similarly as previously shown for saccadic eye movements. The proposed studies aim at filling an important gap in knowledge and are fundamental in establishing a causal role for the vestibular system in spatial and sensorimotor functions that, although largely uncharacterized, are important for understanding and treating cognitive deficits of spatial perception. ? ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01DC007620-01A1
Application #
7141535
Study Section
Sensorimotor Integration Study Section (SMI)
Program Officer
Platt, Christopher
Project Start
2006-07-01
Project End
2011-06-30
Budget Start
2006-07-01
Budget End
2007-06-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2006
Total Cost
$489,542
Indirect Cost
Name
Washington University
Department
Neurosciences
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
068552207
City
Saint Louis
State
MO
Country
United States
Zip Code
63130
Acerbi, Luigi; Dokka, Kalpana; Angelaki, Dora E et al. (2018) Bayesian comparison of explicit and implicit causal inference strategies in multisensory heading perception. PLoS Comput Biol 14:e1006110
Lakshminarasimhan, Kaushik J; Petsalis, Marina; Park, Hyeshin et al. (2018) A Dynamic Bayesian Observer Model Reveals Origins of Bias in Visual Path Integration. Neuron 99:194-206.e5
Zaidel, Adam; DeAngelis, Gregory C; Angelaki, Dora E (2017) Decoupled choice-driven and stimulus-related activity in parietal neurons may be misrepresented by choice probabilities. Nat Commun 8:715
Dokka, Kalpana; DeAngelis, Gregory C; Angelaki, Dora E (2015) Multisensory Integration of Visual and Vestibular Signals Improves Heading Discrimination in the Presence of a Moving Object. J Neurosci 35:13599-607
Drugowitsch, Jan; DeAngelis, Gregory C; Angelaki, Dora E et al. (2015) Tuning the speed-accuracy trade-off to maximize reward rate in multisensory decision-making. Elife 4:e06678
Dokka, Kalpana; MacNeilage, Paul R; DeAngelis, Gregory C et al. (2015) Multisensory self-motion compensation during object trajectory judgments. Cereb Cortex 25:619-30
Drugowitsch, Jan; DeAngelis, Gregory C; Klier, Eliana M et al. (2014) Optimal multisensory decision-making in a reaction-time task. Elife 3:
Angelaki, Dora E (2014) How Optic Flow and Inertial Cues Improve Motion Perception. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 79:141-8
Zaidel, Adam; Ma, Wei Ji; Angelaki, Dora E (2013) Supervised calibration relies on the multisensory percept. Neuron 80:1544-57
MacNeilage, Paul R; Zhang, Zhou; DeAngelis, Gregory C et al. (2012) Vestibular facilitation of optic flow parsing. PLoS One 7:e40264

Showing the most recent 10 out of 21 publications