AUTHOR=Voros Jamie L. , Sherman Sage O. , Rise Rachel , Kryuchkov Alexander , Stine Ponder , Anderson Allison P. , Clark Torin K. 

TITLE=Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation Produces Cross-Modal Improvements in Visual Thresholds

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroscience

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2021.640984

DOI=10.3389/fnins.2021.640984

ISSN=1662-453X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p>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.</p></sec><sec><title>Objective</title><p>We investigated galvanic vestibular white noise (nGVS) (<italic>n</italic> = 9 subjects) to determine the cross-modal effects on visual and auditory thresholds.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>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).</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>We found improvement in visual thresholds (by an average of 18%, <italic>p</italic> = 0.014). Subjects with higher (worse) visual thresholds with no stimulation (sham) improved more than those with lower thresholds (<italic>p</italic> = 0.04). Auditory thresholds were unchanged by vestibular stimulation.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>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.</p></sec>