Vestibular sense and perspectival experience : a reply to Adrian Alsmith

Abstract

To answer Alsmith’s questions about the existence of a vestibular sense, we outline in the first part of our reply why we believe the vestibular sense is a true “sixth sense”. We argue that vestibular information constitutes distinct sensory events and that absolute coding of body orientation and motion in the gravity-centered space is the important unique feature of the vestibular system. In the last part of our reply, we extend Alsmith’s experimental suggestions to investigate the vestibular contribution to various perspectival experiences.