Saturday, February 14, 2009

How the Active Prisms Work - a bit of science

Whenever we look at an object to our left side, the image captured by our retina arrives to our retinal cortex. On the other hand, when we are looking at an object at our right side, the image arrives to the similar place in our brain (the visual cortex). How do we know both objects are not in the same direction in relation to our body ?
Only the proprioceptive input sent by the eye muscles to the brain can help make the difference concerning gaze direction.
Egocentric localization perception is the basis to understand how active prisms work in Dyslexia, Vertigo or Muscular Pain. The mechanism of egocentric localization is integrated in the proprioceptive system. Prisms modify the localization and this produces a new input in the proprioceptive system. We can treat Dyslexia, Vertigo or Muscular Pain by managing the proprioceptive system using the visual entry of this system. This entry is not the classical retinocortical neurological pathway but the retinocolicular neurological pathway. The brain reacts to the new information carried by this pathway and sends a stimulus to the specific eye muscle in order to reestablish the former egocentric localization. This is accomplished by relaxing the muscle tonus.
Consequently, the neuromuscular spindle (muscle sensor) sends a new information to the brain by the trigeminal nerve. This new information enters the proprioceptive system and modifies its way of working.

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