[Spatial positional orientation in deaf-mute individuals with bilateral vestibular areflexia].

Abstract

Ten deaf-mute subjects with total vestibular areflexia were subjected to positional tests, i.e. assessment of the postural subjective vertical and horizontal plane by deviations in the frontal and sagittal plane. The tests were performed in the author's modification of a Grahe table. Comparison with the results of 10 healthy subjects revealed that extinction of vestibular activity increases the inaccuracy of assessment of the body position in space. The conclusion is: the vestibular (otolith) apparatus supplements and makes the activity of all other gravireceptors more accurate but not hold a dominant place among them.