Cortical facilitation of somatosensory inputs using gravity-related tactile information in humans with vestibular hypofunction
Résumé
A few years after their bilateral vestibular loss, patients usually show a motor repertoire that is almost back to normal. This recovery
is thought to involve an upregulation of the visual and proprioceptive information that compensates for the lack of vestibular
information. Here, we investigated whether plantar tactile inputs, which provide body information relative to the ground and to
the Earth vertical, contribute to this compensation. More specifically, we tested the hypothesis that somatosensory cortex
response to electric stimulation of the plantar sole in standing adults will be greater in humans (n = 10) with bilateral vestibular
hypofunction (VH) than in an age-matched healthy group (n = 10). Showing significantly greater somatosensory evoked potentials
(i.e., P1N1) in VH than in control subjects, the electroencephalographic recordings supported this hypothesis. Furthermore, we
found evidence that increasing the differential pressure between both feet, by adding a 1-kg mass at each pendant wrist,
enhanced the internal representation of body orientation and motion relative to a gravitational reference frame. The large
decrease in alpha power in the right posterior parietal cortex (and not in the left) is in line with this assumption. Finally, behavioral
analyses showed that trunk oscillations were smaller than head oscillations in VH and showed a reverse pattern for healthy
participants. These findings are consistent with a tactile-based postural control strategy in the absence of vestibular input and a
vestibular-based control strategy in healthy participants where the head serves as a reference for balance control.
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