Causal mapping of self-motion networks in the human brain

Authors

Dary, Z., Lagarde, S., Medina Villalon, S., Dary, H., Leonard, J., Bartolomei, F., Lopez, C.

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 drug-resistant 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 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.

Preprint server: bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 26 Sep 2026.

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