The human brain networks mediating the vestibular sensation of self-motion
Author(s)
Type
Working Paper
Abstract
Vestibular Agnosia - where peripheral vestibular activation triggers the usual reflex nystagmus response but with attenuated or no self-motion perception - is found in brain disease with disrupted cortical network functioning, e.g. traumatic brain injury (TBI) or neurodegeneration (Parkinson’s Disease). Patients with acute focal hemispheric lesions (e.g. stroke) do not manifest vestibular agnosia. Thus brain network mapping techniques, e.g. resting state functional MRI (rsfMRI), are needed to interrogate functional brain networks mediating vestibular agnosia. Whole-brain rsfMRI was acquired from 39 prospectively recruited acute TBI patients with preserved peripheral vestibular function, along with self-motion perceptual thresholds during passive yaw rotations in the dark. Following quality-control checks, 25 patient scans were analyzed. TBI patients were classified as having vestibular agnosia (n = 11) or not (n = 14) via laboratory testing of self-motion perception. Using independent component analysis, we found altered functional connectivity in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus and left rostral prefrontal cortex in vestibular agnosia. Moreover, regions of interest analyses showed both inter-hemispheric and intra-hemispheric network disruption in vestibular agnosia. In conclusion, our results show that vestibular agnosia is mediated by bilateral anterior and posterior network dysfunction and reveal the distributed brain mechanisms mediating vestibular self-motion perception.
Date Issued
2022-02-06
Citation
2022
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Copyright Statement
© 2022 Th Author(s). It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
License URL
Sponsor
National Institute for Health Research
UK DRI Ltd
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust- BRC Funding
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust- BRC Funding
Identifier
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.03.471139v2
Grant Number
NIHR-RP-011-048
DRI-CORE2020-CRT
RDC04 79560
RDC04
Publication Status
Published