Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

DrBarrySeemungal

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Brain Sciences

Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer
 
 
 
//

Contact

 

+44 (0)20 3311 7042b.seemungal Website

 
 
//

Assistant

 

Miss Lorna Stevenson +44 (0)20 3313 5525

 
//

Location

 

10L16Lab BlockCharing Cross Campus

//

Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Nigmatullina:2013:cercor/bht266,
author = {Nigmatullina, Y and Hellyer, PJ and Nachev, P and Sharp, DJ and Seemungal, BM},
doi = {cercor/bht266},
journal = {Cerebral Cortex},
pages = {554--562},
title = {The Neuroanatomical Correlates of Training-Related Perceptuo-Reflex Uncoupling in Dancers},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bht266},
volume = {25},
year = {2013}
}
Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Sensory input evokes low-order reflexes and higher-order perceptual responses. Vestibular stimulation elicits vestibular-ocular reflex (VOR) and self-motion perception (e.g., vertigo) whose response durations are normally equal. Adaptation to repeated whole-body rotations, for example, ballet training, is known to reduce vestibular responses. We investigated the neuroanatomical correlates of vestibular perceptuo-reflex adaptation in ballet dancers and controls. Dancers' vestibular-reflex and perceptual responses to whole-body yaw-plane step rotations were: (1) Briefer and (2) uncorrelated (controls' reflex and perception were correlated). Voxel-based morphometry showed a selective gray matter (GM) reduction in dancers' vestibular cerebellum correlating with ballet experience. Dancers' vestibular cerebellar GM density reduction was related to shorter perceptual responses (i.e. positively correlated) but longer VOR duration (negatively correlated). Contrastingly, controls' vestibular cerebellar GM density negatively correlated with perception and VOR. Diffusion-tensor imaging showed that cerebral cortex white matter (WM) microstructure correlated with vestibular perception but only in controls. In summary, dancers display vestibular perceptuo-reflex dissociation with the neuronatomical correlate localized to the vestibular cerebellum. Controls' robust vestibular perception correlated with a cortical WM network conspicuously absent in dancers. Since primary vestibular afferents synapse in the vestibular cerebellum, we speculate that a cerebellar gating of perceptual signals to cortical regions mediates the training-related attenuation of vestibular perception and perceptuo-reflex uncoupling.
AU  - Nigmatullina,Y
AU  - Hellyer,PJ
AU  - Nachev,P
AU  - Sharp,DJ
AU  - Seemungal,BM
DO  - cercor/bht266
EP  - 562
PY  - 2013///
SP  - 554
TI  - The Neuroanatomical Correlates of Training-Related Perceptuo-Reflex Uncoupling in Dancers
T2  - Cerebral Cortex
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bht266
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/29225
VL  - 25
ER  -
Download