Causal mapping of self-motion networks in the human brain
Abstract
Although functional neuroimaging studies using caloric and galvanic vestibular stimulation have identified a distributed cortical network involved in human vestibular processing, including the posterior insula, parietal operculum, temporo-parietal junction, cingulate and frontal areas, the causal contribution of specific brain regions to vestibular self-motion perception remains poorly understood. Invasive electrical brain stimulation (EBS) during stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) offers a unique opportunity to causally map the cortical networks underlying vestibular self-motion perception in humans.
Here, we retrospectively analyzed EBS-induced vestibular percepts in 354 patients with drugresistant epilepsy undergoing SEEG. A total of 19,708 stimulations (11,004 at 50 Hz and 8,704 at 1 Hz) yielded 3,015 clinical responses. Vestibular self-motion illusions were defined as sensations of vertigo, dizziness, whole-body rotation, or translation occurring without corresponding physical movement. Stimulation sites were assigned to the seven large-scale functional networks of the Schaefer-Yeo atlas to characterize the network organization of vestibular self-motion perception.
Vestibular self-motion sensations were elicited in 46 patients (21 females; mean age ± SD: 25 ± 11 years) during 86 EBS delivered outside epileptogenic and lesional regions. Percepts ranged from nonspecific vertigo and dizziness (54.7%) to more explicit rotational (30.2%) and translational (15.1%) self-motion illusions. Vestibular responses were most commonly evoked by stimulation of the insula, medial temporal regions, cingulate cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and premotor cortices. Network-level mapping using the Schaefer-Yeo atlas revealed a non-uniform distribution of vestibular sites across large-scale functional networks, with the highest representation within the salience/ventral attention, visual, and dorsal attention networks.
Together, these findings provide causal evidence that vestibular self-motion perception emerges from activity within a distributed cortical network involved in attentional control and multisensory processing. Beyond advancing our understanding of human vestibular processing, these findings may have clinical relevance for disorders involving altered self-motion perception, including vestibular epilepsy and functional neurological disorders.
Related
- Whole-brain modeling of dynamic causal circuits in human cognition using amortized variational inference
- Reduced causal connectivity in multiple resting-state networks in autism spectrum disorder detected by convergent cross mapping
- Mapping the neural basis of the perception of “flow of time”: interval timing and mental time travel in the human brain
- Causal reasoning is domain-specific in the human brain
- Mapping brain networks underlying abstract perceptual decision formation and its EEG signatures
BibTeX
@misc{dary2026causal,
title = {{Causal mapping of self-motion networks in the human brain}},
author = {Zoé Dary and Stanislas Lagarde and Samuel Medina Villalon and Hugo Dary and Jacques Leonard and Fabrice Bartolomei and Christophe Lopez},
howpublished = {HAL},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.19.752147},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05764213v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Causal mapping of self-motion networks in the human brain
AU - Zoé Dary
AU - Stanislas Lagarde
AU - Samuel Medina Villalon
AU - Hugo Dary
AU - Jacques Leonard
AU - Fabrice Bartolomei
AU - Christophe Lopez
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/19
PB - HAL
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.19.752147
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05764213v1
AB - Although functional neuroimaging studies using caloric and galvanic vestibular stimulation have identified a distributed cortical network involved in human vestibular processing, including the posterior insula, parietal operculum, temporo-parietal junction, cingulate and frontal areas, the causal contribution of specific brain regions to vestibular self-motion perception remains poorly understood. Invasive electrical brain stimulation (EBS) during stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) offers a unique opportunity to causally map the cortical networks underlying vestibular self-motion perception in humans. Here, we retrospectively analyzed EBS-induced vestibular percepts in 354 patients with drugresistant epilepsy undergoing SEEG. A total of 19,708 stimulations (11,004 at 50 Hz and 8,704 at 1 Hz) yielded 3,015 clinical responses. Vestibular self-motion illusions were defined as sensations of vertigo, dizziness, whole-body rotation, or translation occurring without corresponding physical movement. Stimulation sites were assigned to the seven large-scale functional networks of the Schaefer-Yeo atlas to characterize the network organization of vestibular self-motion perception. Vestibular self-motion sensations were elicited in 46 patients (21 females; mean age ± SD: 25 ± 11 years) during 86 EBS delivered outside epileptogenic and lesional regions. Percepts ranged from nonspecific vertigo and dizziness (54.7%) to more explicit rotational (30.2%) and translational (15.1%) self-motion illusions. Vestibular responses were most commonly evoked by stimulation of the insula, medial temporal regions, cingulate cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and premotor cortices. Network-level mapping using the Schaefer-Yeo atlas revealed a non-uniform distribution of vestibular sites across large-scale functional networks, with the highest representation within the salience/ventral attention, visual, and dorsal attention networks. Together, these findings provide causal evidence that vestibular self-motion perception emerges from activity within a distributed cortical network involved in attentional control and multisensory processing. Beyond advancing our understanding of human vestibular processing, these findings may have clinical relevance for disorders involving altered self-motion perception, including vestibular epilepsy and functional neurological disorders.
ER -