The role of the vestibular system in manual target localization

Astronauts experience perceptual and sensory-motor disturbances during spaceflight and immediately after return to the 1-g environment of Earth. During spaceflight, sensory information from the eyes, limbs and vestibular organs is reinterpreted by the central nervous system so that astronauts can produce appropriate body movements in microgravity. Alterations in sensory-motor function may affect eye-head-hand coordination and, thus, the crewmember's ability to manually locate objects in extrapersonal space. Previous reports have demonstrated that crewmembers have difficulty in estimating joint and limb position and in pointing to memorized target positions on orbit and immediately postflight. One set of internal cues that may assist in the manual localization of objects is information from the vestibular system. This system contributes to our sense of the body's position in space by providing information on head position and movement and the orientation of the body with respect to gravity. Research on the vestibular system has concentrated on its role in oculo-motor control. Little is known about the role that vestibular information plays in manual motor control, such as reaching and pointing movements. Since central interpretation of vestibular information is altered in microgravity, it is important to determine its role in this process. This summer, we determined the importance of vestibular information in a subject's ability to point accurately toward a target in extrapersonal space. Subjects were passively rotated across the earth-vertical axis and then asked to point back to a previously-seen target. In the first paradigm, the subjects used both visual and vestibular cues for the pointing response, while, in the second paradigm, subjects used only vestibular information. Subjects were able to point with 85 percent accuracy to a target using vestibular information alone. We infer from this result that vestibular input plays a role in the spatial programming of manual responses.