Modification of Per- and Postrotational Responses by Voluntary Motor Activity of the Limbs.
Abstract
The reactions of pilots to vestibular stimuli in aircraft are often analyzed as though the pilot were a passive rider. A means of gaining insight into effects of voluntary motor control on reactions to motion is to compare responses to similar motions experienced in different ways. The present study indicates that cessation of sustained passive rotation by voluntary limb actions strongly suppresses the postrotational turning sensation, but does not alter the vestibulo-ocular reflex; rotation produced by arm action augments perrotatory nystagmus and suppresses postrotatory nystagmus and postrotatory turning sensations; head movements immediately after an active turn-and-stop do not produce the disturbing Purkinje effect that commonly accompanies head movements following rotation. While the motor activity in the present study was qualitatively different from motor responses exercised by pilots, the results lend credence to the possibility that the reactions of highly experienced pilots to the motions they initiate in aircraft are modulated by feedforward mechanisms which alter sensory feedback and sensorimotor consequences of the motions which must remain under the pilot's active control. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA106163
Entities
People
- Alan J. Benson
- Fred E. Guedry Jr.
Organizations
- Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory