2011 Newsletter
In our annual newsletter, we highlight several amazing and unexpected discoveries this past year. These have led to two important new research initiatives the results of which will have direct consequences both for patient care and for scientific inquiry into how the brain works.
Scientific American Mind: Why Don’t Figure Skaters Get Dizzy When They Spin?
When we spin—on an amusement park ride or the dance floor—we often become disoriented, even dizzy. So how do professional athletes, particularly figure skaters who spin at incredible speeds, avoid losing their balance? The short answer is training, but to really grasp why figure skaters can twirl without getting dizzy requires an understanding of the […]
Groundbreaking ophthalmologist, longtime Johns Hopkins faculty member David A. Robinson dies at 92
Robinson, who retired in 1993, studied electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins and received his master’s and PhD degrees in 1956 and 1959, respectively. He joined the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine faculty as an instructor in 1961 and was named an assistant professor of biomedical engineering in 1966. In 1965, Robinson published a groundbreaking paper […]
The Eyes Have It – A Interview With David Zee MD
Get the latest from the labs, doctors and medical centers at the University of California so you can make the best health care decisions. Visit uctv.tv/health
New article published in Journal of Vision
Torsional eye movements are rotations of the eye around the line of sight. Measuring torsion is essential to understanding how the brain controls eye position and how it creates a veridical perception of object orientation in three dimensions. Torsion is also important for diagnosis of many vestibular, neurological, and ophthalmological disorders. Currently, there are multiple […]
Researchers at Johns Hopkins identify area of brain that prevents dizziness
Johns Hopkins researchers say they have pinpointed a site in a highly developed area of the human brain that plays an important role in the subconscious recognition of which way is up and which way is down. The finding, described online in the journal Cerebral Cortex, may help account for some causes of spatial disorientation and dizziness, researchers say, […]
New article published in Cerebral Cortex
Although the pull of gravity, primarily detected by the labyrinth, is the fundamental input for our sense of upright, vision and proprioception must also be integrated with vestibular information into a coherent perception of spatial orientation. Here, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to probe the role of the cortex at the temporal parietal junction […]
2013 Newsletter
Last year we reported our exciting and highly acclaimed discovery on how MRI machines influence the areas of the brain that control eye movements and balance. We found that the magnetic field of an MRI machine causes everyone who lies in an MRI scanner to develop nystagmus. [more …]
Images In Clinical Medicine: Dizziness and Vertigo during MRI
Abstract A 33-year-old man participating in a research study underwent MRI in a 7-tesla MRI scanner. On entering the scanner, he had a spinning sensation for 2 minutes. Nystagmus, recorded with infrared goggles and shown in a video, continued for the entire 90-minute scanning period.