Modelling Three Dimensional Vestibular Responses During Complex Motion Stimulation

Complex motion stimuli provide a unique and powerful method to stretch the limited range of sensory stimulation we normally experience and to decouple those sensory inputs which normally correlate with one another during normal movements. By examining the responses induced by complex stimuli, the characteristics of the underlying neural processing (from sensor to response) can be examined more thoroughly, since the system is no longer in its accustomed range. Therefore, it is possible to distinguish different information processing mechanisms, which may be indistinguishable for natural stimuli. “Reflexive” eye movement responses are one commonly studied vestibular response to motion stimuli, but perceptual correlates of the stimuli are also elicited by motion. (As the term correlate suggests, the perceptions experienced by a subject during and after motion can be related to physical properties of the stimulus such as position, velocity and acceleration.) A quantification of some of the perceptual correlates has been made possible by psychophysical