Vestibular patients generate more regular head movements than healthy individuals during gaze-stabilization exercises

Abstract The vestibular system is vital for maintaining stable vision during daily activities. When peripheral vestibular input is lost, patients initially experience impaired gaze stability due to reduced effectiveness of the vestibular-ocular-reflex pathway. To aid rehabilitation, patients are oft...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Cecelia Shuai, Omid A. Zobeiri, Jennifer L. Millar, Michael C. Schubert, Mark Shelhamer, Kathleen E. Cullen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-01-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-84939-3
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1841544776388706304
author Cecelia Shuai
Omid A. Zobeiri
Jennifer L. Millar
Michael C. Schubert
Mark Shelhamer
Kathleen E. Cullen
author_facet Cecelia Shuai
Omid A. Zobeiri
Jennifer L. Millar
Michael C. Schubert
Mark Shelhamer
Kathleen E. Cullen
author_sort Cecelia Shuai
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The vestibular system is vital for maintaining stable vision during daily activities. When peripheral vestibular input is lost, patients initially experience impaired gaze stability due to reduced effectiveness of the vestibular-ocular-reflex pathway. To aid rehabilitation, patients are often prescribed gaze-stabilization exercises during which they make self-initiated active head movements. Analyzing statistical pattern of sequences of stereotyped behaviors to characterize degrees of randomness or repeatability has proven to be a powerful approach for diagnosing disease states, yet this approach has not been applied to patients with vestibular loss. Accordingly, here we investigated whether the patterning of head movements is altered in vestibular-loss patients by using trial-based analysis and sample-entropy measurement. The subjects completed gaze-stability exercises in both the yaw and pitch directions. In trial-based analysis, we calculated the trial-to-trial variability of head movement duration and peak velocity for each individual head movement. Our results showed that healthy individuals exhibited a temporally repetitive (correlated) structure in peak velocity, especially for head movements in the pitch direction, which was absent in most patients. In the sample entropy analysis, which measures the irregularity or randomness of a time series, our results revealed that head-movement generation was more regular in vestibular-loss patients compared to healthy controls. Together, these analyses suggest that vestibular-loss patients display less flexibility in the patterning of their head motions. Our results provide the first experimental evidence that temporal head stability is a valuable metric for distinguishing individuals with impaired vestibular function from healthy ones.
format Article
id doaj-art-bf3ae3e8e64f45cca8157704df6b0d96
institution Kabale University
issn 2045-2322
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher Nature Portfolio
record_format Article
series Scientific Reports
spelling doaj-art-bf3ae3e8e64f45cca8157704df6b0d962025-01-12T12:17:26ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-01-0115111710.1038/s41598-024-84939-3Vestibular patients generate more regular head movements than healthy individuals during gaze-stabilization exercisesCecelia Shuai0Omid A. Zobeiri1Jennifer L. Millar2Michael C. Schubert3Mark Shelhamer4Kathleen E. Cullen5Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of MedicineDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, McGill UniversityDepartment of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins University School of MedicineDepartment of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins University School of MedicineDepartment of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of MedicineDepartment of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of MedicineAbstract The vestibular system is vital for maintaining stable vision during daily activities. When peripheral vestibular input is lost, patients initially experience impaired gaze stability due to reduced effectiveness of the vestibular-ocular-reflex pathway. To aid rehabilitation, patients are often prescribed gaze-stabilization exercises during which they make self-initiated active head movements. Analyzing statistical pattern of sequences of stereotyped behaviors to characterize degrees of randomness or repeatability has proven to be a powerful approach for diagnosing disease states, yet this approach has not been applied to patients with vestibular loss. Accordingly, here we investigated whether the patterning of head movements is altered in vestibular-loss patients by using trial-based analysis and sample-entropy measurement. The subjects completed gaze-stability exercises in both the yaw and pitch directions. In trial-based analysis, we calculated the trial-to-trial variability of head movement duration and peak velocity for each individual head movement. Our results showed that healthy individuals exhibited a temporally repetitive (correlated) structure in peak velocity, especially for head movements in the pitch direction, which was absent in most patients. In the sample entropy analysis, which measures the irregularity or randomness of a time series, our results revealed that head-movement generation was more regular in vestibular-loss patients compared to healthy controls. Together, these analyses suggest that vestibular-loss patients display less flexibility in the patterning of their head motions. Our results provide the first experimental evidence that temporal head stability is a valuable metric for distinguishing individuals with impaired vestibular function from healthy ones.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-84939-3
spellingShingle Cecelia Shuai
Omid A. Zobeiri
Jennifer L. Millar
Michael C. Schubert
Mark Shelhamer
Kathleen E. Cullen
Vestibular patients generate more regular head movements than healthy individuals during gaze-stabilization exercises
Scientific Reports
title Vestibular patients generate more regular head movements than healthy individuals during gaze-stabilization exercises
title_full Vestibular patients generate more regular head movements than healthy individuals during gaze-stabilization exercises
title_fullStr Vestibular patients generate more regular head movements than healthy individuals during gaze-stabilization exercises
title_full_unstemmed Vestibular patients generate more regular head movements than healthy individuals during gaze-stabilization exercises
title_short Vestibular patients generate more regular head movements than healthy individuals during gaze-stabilization exercises
title_sort vestibular patients generate more regular head movements than healthy individuals during gaze stabilization exercises
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-84939-3
work_keys_str_mv AT ceceliashuai vestibularpatientsgeneratemoreregularheadmovementsthanhealthyindividualsduringgazestabilizationexercises
AT omidazobeiri vestibularpatientsgeneratemoreregularheadmovementsthanhealthyindividualsduringgazestabilizationexercises
AT jenniferlmillar vestibularpatientsgeneratemoreregularheadmovementsthanhealthyindividualsduringgazestabilizationexercises
AT michaelcschubert vestibularpatientsgeneratemoreregularheadmovementsthanhealthyindividualsduringgazestabilizationexercises
AT markshelhamer vestibularpatientsgeneratemoreregularheadmovementsthanhealthyindividualsduringgazestabilizationexercises
AT kathleenecullen vestibularpatientsgeneratemoreregularheadmovementsthanhealthyindividualsduringgazestabilizationexercises