Body and Mature Behavior: A Study of Anxiety, Sex, Gravitation, and Learning by Moshe Feldenkrais

Author:Moshe Feldenkrais [Feldenkrais, Moshe]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 978-1-58394-807-1
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Published: 2013-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

1. Motion in which the moving body does not rotate.

9.

Sensation and Vestibular Apparatus

ORIENTATION IN SPACE is an essential function for any living organism. We normally maintain a peculiar vertical alignment quite distinct from all other animals. The precarious mechanical equilibrium is made good by a complex play of muscles that keeps our constantly shifting body vertical, and as far as our awareness is concerned, practically free from gravitation.

All perception and sensation take place on a background of muscular activity. And though we are unaware of it, this activity is most strictly shaped by gravity. There are several systems cooperating in orienting our bodies, but the vestibular apparatus is the coordinating chef d’orchestre. It is more closely connected to primitive motility than vision. Reaction to auditory signals is faster (0.12 to 0.18 of a second) than to optical signals (0.19 to 0.22 of a second). The auditory centers in the cortex are much less localized than the visual ones. Auditory centers are encountered earlier in the scale of evolution. The vestibular apparatus coordinates all sensory impulses that influence muscular tone and attitudes.

There is no isolated sensory impulse. Every impression, even if artificially produced, is at least mixed with kinesthetic sensations. We cannot perceive unless we are aware of the attitude and orientation of the body. On awakening in a strange and unaccustomed position, we fail to locate the image of the body in space. A sense of anxiety pervades us when we suddenly realize that we have no control over orientation. Until the head or at least the eyes have picked up the habitual relation to space we feel lost. Our flexors contract involuntarily and violently until a familiar muscular pattern is produced in the teleceptors’ control.

We are not necessarily consciously aware of the special relation of the body to space and orientation. The vestibular apparatus takes a definite part in every single perception. It is well known that dizziness is connected with disorder of the vestibular apparatus. Pallor, nausea and vomiting, the breathing and pulse alterations occurring with them, are all connected with the excitation of the vestibular apparatus. All these reactions can readily be elicited. The influence of the vestibular apparatus on the vegetative nervous system is well established.

The vestibular apparatus has also an influence on the visual field. Almost every patient with labyrinthine disorders complains of the darkening of the visual field. During the irrigation of the ear, many patients see everything as through a mist. Darkening of the visual field is generally present with labyrinthine fistulae.

Hans Hoff and Paul Schilder report a case of central vestibular lesion, verified on autopsy, due to an accident. Twenty years later the patient still had attacks with loss of consciousness. He had a vertical nystagmus, facial paralysis, constant dizziness; objects turned round him in the frontal plane. When looking with one eye, objects were doubled. He had marked anomalies in postural and righting reflexes. His left arm behaved differently when lying from when standing. He saw all objects inclined 30 degrees to the right side.

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