Pickup of head movement in vestibular reflex experiments with an optical fiber gyroscope

We show that, in studying eye-head coordination, the rotation of the head can be measured with the aid of a fiber optics gyroscope mounted on a helmet worn by the subject, and that the performances of this approach are considerably better than those of currently used sensors. After presenting the specifications required in head rotation measurements, we report details on the gyroscope used and on its interconnection to the acquisition system, and discuss experimental results of head rotation measurements made by the gyroscope and the potentiometer sensor.