Vestibular reactions during prolonged constant angular acceleration

¹ U. S. Army Medical Research Laboratory, Fort Knox, Kentucky

Six human subjects received stimuli of 2 deg/sec.² for 45 seconds and 1.5 deg/sec.² for 60 seconds. Direct-coupled amplification of corneoretinal potential was used to record eye movements. Although some subjects occasionally showed a rise and decline in the velocity of nystagmus during constant angular acceleration, typically, near-maximum velocity was attained in about 30 seconds with little subsequent gain or loss until acceleration ended. Routinely, nystagmus outlasted the subjective afterreaction. Departures from previous results seem attributable to maintenance of alertness by requiring continuous estimation of subjective events. Theoretical implications of the divergence between the subjective and oculomotor aspects of the reaction are discussed.