‘Quake’ reveals how eyes and ears keep us balanced

The Earthquake machine at Questacon, the National Science and Technology Centre, has been used in groundbreaking research by vision scientists to confirm that instead of working in isolation, our visual and middle-ear systems work together, to give us an improved sense of balance. Led by Dr Mark Edwards and Dr Michael Ibbotson, chief investigators in The Vision Centre and researchers at the Australian National University, this research has opened up various opportunities to future research, including potentially developing ways to reduce motion sickness, a phenomenon that affects millions of people. ?The images on our eyes undergo complex patterns of motion, called optic-flow patterns, that indicate the type of movement we are making, e.g. radially expanding patterns indicate forward motion, and contracting patterns backward motion.” 'The vestibular system consists of fluid-filled channels in our inner ear and it responds to the inertial forces produced by changes in our speed or direction of movement.' The parental anecdotes of having children close their eyes  when they are affected by motion sickness, hence removing visual input, seems to suggest a functional interaction between these two systems. In a unique experiment using equipment that has enthralled thousands of visitors to Questacon, young and old, Dr Edwards and Dr Ibbotson have demonstrated both our visual and vestibular systems are far more closely interconnected than was previously thought.