Detection of the state of self-motion, such as the instantaneous heading direction, the traveled trajectory and traveled distance or time, is critical for efficient spatial navigation. Numerous psychophysical studies have indicated that the vestibular system, originating from the otolith and semicircular canals in our inner ears, provides robust signals for different aspects of self-motion perception. In addition, vestibular signals interact with other sensory signals such as visual optic flow to facilitate natural navigation. These behavioral results are consistent with recent findings in neurophysiological studies. In particular, vestibular activity in response to the translation or rotation of the head/body in darkness is revealed in a growing number of cortical regions, many of which are also sensitive to visual motion stimuli. The temporal dynamics of the vestibular activity in the central nervous system can vary widely, ranging from acceleration-dominant to velocity-dominant. Different temporal dynamic signals may be decoded by higher level areas for different functions. For example, the acceleration signals during the translation of body in the horizontal plane may be used by the brain to estimate the heading directions. Although translation and rotation signals arise from independent peripheral organs, that is, otolith and canals, respectively, they frequently converge onto single neurons in the central nervous system including both the brainstem and the cerebral cortex. The convergent neurons typically exhibit stronger responses during a combined curved motion trajectory which may serve as the neural correlate for complex path perception. During spatial navigation, traveled distance or time may be encoded by different population of neurons in multiple regions including hippocampal-entorhinal system, posterior parietal cortex, or frontal cortex.
Keywords: distance perception; heading; path trajectory; self-motion perception; vestibular.