The findings support interpretations made from fossil evidence of an evolutionary change in the development of the human semicircular canals. These evolutionary changes would allow for enhanced movement detection, and therefore also indicate that that controlled movement, rather than alignment to gravity, has been important for the development of modern human bipedalism.

This new work has important implications for understanding how the brain processes sensory signals.

According to the researchers, the findings indicate that from the single sensory organ that signals the movement of the head, the brain makes instant complex "mathematical" calculations to discard the parts not important to balance or steering, such as the movements we make when looking around, and then transforms the remaining signal into two components. One component is used to control steering, and the other to control balance. In a more practical view, this ability to produce illusions of movement, and then steer and balance the body by external control, leads the researchers to expect that stimulation techniques developed from the approach used in the new study will lead the way to diagnostic, therapeutic, and virtual-reality applications.

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Contact: Heidi Hardman
hhardman@cell.com
617-397-2879
Cell Press
7-Aug-2006