Abstract

It is widely recognized that postural stabilization is multisensory. The normal anterior-posterior (AP) body sway of an individual results in visual cues of postural instability such as changes in apparent stimulus movement, image size and retinal disparity. Changes in pressure on the skin, muscle and joint receptors as well as changes in angular/translational head movements and head position also serve as somatosensory and vestibular cues to postural instability. Although it is known that information about postural stability is available from each of the three sensory modalities, little is known about how they interact.

© 1992 Optical Society of America