Watching the Effects of Gravity. Vestibular Cortex and the Neural Representation of “Visual” Gravity

Gravity is a physical constraint all terrestrial species have adapted to through evolution. Indeed, gravity effects are taken into account in many forms of interaction with the environment, from the seemingly simple task of maintaining balance to the complex motor skills performed by athletes and da...

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Autores principales:	Sergio Delle Monache, Iole Indovina, Myrka Zago, Elena Daprati, Francesco Lacquaniti, Gianfranco Bosco
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	internal model vestibular network neuroimaging TMS connectomics psychophysics Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry RC321-571 Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system RC346-429
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/9339787282a54b2fa11109987b75c99b
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:9339787282a54b2fa11109987b75c99b2021-12-01T21:52:54ZWatching the Effects of Gravity. Vestibular Cortex and the Neural Representation of “Visual” Gravity1662-514510.3389/fnint.2021.793634https://doaj.org/article/9339787282a54b2fa11109987b75c99b2021-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnint.2021.793634/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/1662-5145Gravity is a physical constraint all terrestrial species have adapted to through evolution. Indeed, gravity effects are taken into account in many forms of interaction with the environment, from the seemingly simple task of maintaining balance to the complex motor skills performed by athletes and dancers. Graviceptors, primarily located in the vestibular otolith organs, feed the Central Nervous System with information related to the gravity acceleration vector. This information is integrated with signals from semicircular canals, vision, and proprioception in an ensemble of interconnected brain areas, including the vestibular nuclei, cerebellum, thalamus, insula, retroinsula, parietal operculum, and temporo-parietal junction, in the so-called vestibular network. Classical views consider this stage of multisensory integration as instrumental to sort out conflicting and/or ambiguous information from the incoming sensory signals. However, there is compelling evidence that it also contributes to an internal representation of gravity effects based on prior experience with the environment. This a priori knowledge could be engaged by various types of information, including sensory signals like the visual ones, which lack a direct correspondence with physical gravity. Indeed, the retinal accelerations elicited by gravitational motion in a visual scene are not invariant, but scale with viewing distance. Moreover, the “visual” gravity vector may not be aligned with physical gravity, as when we watch a scene on a tilted monitor or in weightlessness. This review will discuss experimental evidence from behavioral, neuroimaging (connectomics, fMRI, TMS), and patients’ studies, supporting the idea that the internal model estimating the effects of gravity on visual objects is constructed by transforming the vestibular estimates of physical gravity, which are computed in the brainstem and cerebellum, into internalized estimates of virtual gravity, stored in the vestibular cortex. The integration of the internal model of gravity with visual and non-visual signals would take place at multiple levels in the cortex and might involve recurrent connections between early visual areas engaged in the analysis of spatio-temporal features of the visual stimuli and higher visual areas in temporo-parietal-insular regions.Sergio Delle MonacheSergio Delle MonacheIole IndovinaIole IndovinaMyrka ZagoMyrka ZagoMyrka ZagoElena DapratiElena DapratiElena DapratiFrancesco LacquanitiFrancesco LacquanitiFrancesco LacquanitiGianfranco BoscoGianfranco BoscoGianfranco BoscoFrontiers Media S.A.articleinternal modelvestibular networkneuroimagingTMSconnectomicspsychophysicsNeurosciences. Biological psychiatry. NeuropsychiatryRC321-571Neurology. Diseases of the nervous systemRC346-429ENFrontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, Vol 15 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	internal model vestibular network neuroimaging TMS connectomics psychophysics Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry RC321-571 Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system RC346-429
spellingShingle	internal model vestibular network neuroimaging TMS connectomics psychophysics Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry RC321-571 Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system RC346-429 Sergio Delle Monache Sergio Delle Monache Iole Indovina Iole Indovina Myrka Zago Myrka Zago Myrka Zago Elena Daprati Elena Daprati Elena Daprati Francesco Lacquaniti Francesco Lacquaniti Francesco Lacquaniti Gianfranco Bosco Gianfranco Bosco Gianfranco Bosco Watching the Effects of Gravity. Vestibular Cortex and the Neural Representation of “Visual” Gravity
description	Gravity is a physical constraint all terrestrial species have adapted to through evolution. Indeed, gravity effects are taken into account in many forms of interaction with the environment, from the seemingly simple task of maintaining balance to the complex motor skills performed by athletes and dancers. Graviceptors, primarily located in the vestibular otolith organs, feed the Central Nervous System with information related to the gravity acceleration vector. This information is integrated with signals from semicircular canals, vision, and proprioception in an ensemble of interconnected brain areas, including the vestibular nuclei, cerebellum, thalamus, insula, retroinsula, parietal operculum, and temporo-parietal junction, in the so-called vestibular network. Classical views consider this stage of multisensory integration as instrumental to sort out conflicting and/or ambiguous information from the incoming sensory signals. However, there is compelling evidence that it also contributes to an internal representation of gravity effects based on prior experience with the environment. This a priori knowledge could be engaged by various types of information, including sensory signals like the visual ones, which lack a direct correspondence with physical gravity. Indeed, the retinal accelerations elicited by gravitational motion in a visual scene are not invariant, but scale with viewing distance. Moreover, the “visual” gravity vector may not be aligned with physical gravity, as when we watch a scene on a tilted monitor or in weightlessness. This review will discuss experimental evidence from behavioral, neuroimaging (connectomics, fMRI, TMS), and patients’ studies, supporting the idea that the internal model estimating the effects of gravity on visual objects is constructed by transforming the vestibular estimates of physical gravity, which are computed in the brainstem and cerebellum, into internalized estimates of virtual gravity, stored in the vestibular cortex. The integration of the internal model of gravity with visual and non-visual signals would take place at multiple levels in the cortex and might involve recurrent connections between early visual areas engaged in the analysis of spatio-temporal features of the visual stimuli and higher visual areas in temporo-parietal-insular regions.
format	article
author	Sergio Delle Monache Sergio Delle Monache Iole Indovina Iole Indovina Myrka Zago Myrka Zago Myrka Zago Elena Daprati Elena Daprati Elena Daprati Francesco Lacquaniti Francesco Lacquaniti Francesco Lacquaniti Gianfranco Bosco Gianfranco Bosco Gianfranco Bosco
author_facet	Sergio Delle Monache Sergio Delle Monache Iole Indovina Iole Indovina Myrka Zago Myrka Zago Myrka Zago Elena Daprati Elena Daprati Elena Daprati Francesco Lacquaniti Francesco Lacquaniti Francesco Lacquaniti Gianfranco Bosco Gianfranco Bosco Gianfranco Bosco
author_sort	Sergio Delle Monache
title	Watching the Effects of Gravity. Vestibular Cortex and the Neural Representation of “Visual” Gravity
title_short	Watching the Effects of Gravity. Vestibular Cortex and the Neural Representation of “Visual” Gravity
title_full	Watching the Effects of Gravity. Vestibular Cortex and the Neural Representation of “Visual” Gravity
title_fullStr	Watching the Effects of Gravity. Vestibular Cortex and the Neural Representation of “Visual” Gravity
title_full_unstemmed	Watching the Effects of Gravity. Vestibular Cortex and the Neural Representation of “Visual” Gravity
title_sort	watching the effects of gravity. vestibular cortex and the neural representation of “visual” gravity
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/9339787282a54b2fa11109987b75c99b
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Watching the Effects of Gravity. Vestibular Cortex and the Neural Representation of “Visual” Gravity

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