Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation Produces Cross-Modal Improvements in Visual Thresholds

Abstract

<div id="enc-abstract" class="abstract-content selected"> <strong class="sub-title"> Background: </strong> Stochastic resonance (SR) refers to a faint signal being enhanced with the addition of white noise. Previous studies have found that vestibular perceptual thresholds are lowered with noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation (i.e., "in-channel" SR). Auditory white noise has been shown to improve tactile and visual thresholds, suggesting "cross-modal" SR. <strong class="sub-title"> Objective: </strong> We investigated galvanic vestibular white noise (nGVS) (<em>n</em> = 9 subjects) to determine the cross-modal effects on visual and auditory thresholds. <strong class="sub-title"> Methods: </strong> We measured auditory and visual perceptual thresholds of human subjects across a swath of different nGVS levels in order to determine if some individual-subject determined best nGVS level elicited a reduction in thresholds as compared the no noise condition (sham). <strong class="sub-title"> Results: </strong> We found improvement in visual thresholds (by an average of 18%, <em>p</em> = 0.014). Subjects with higher (worse) visual thresholds with no stimulation (sham) improved more than those with lower thresholds (<em>p</em> = 0.04). Auditory thresholds were unchanged by vestibular stimulation. <strong class="sub-title"> Conclusion: </strong> These results are the first demonstration of cross-modal improvement with galvanic vestibular stimulation, indicating galvanic vestibular white noise can produce cross-modal improvements in some sensory channels, but not all. </div> &nbsp;