The Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex: Stabilizing a Moving World

Why your eyes stay fixed while your head moves… and how to leverage this reflex to improve your athletes' dynamic balance.

Imagine a volleyball player following a short feint, or a ski racer negotiating a late gate: in both cases, the head pivots sharply while the eyes must remain focused on the target.

If we had to wait for a voluntary adjustment, the image would slip on the retina, the cortex would lose track, and the correction would come too late.

This is where the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) comes into play: a circuit of neurons, with a latency of 8 to 10 milliseconds, that moves the eyes exactly opposite to the direction of the head to keep the visual scene stable.

No reliable VOR? The world shakes (oscillopsia), trajectory reading becomes blurred, and energy expenditure increases with each delayed correction.

For your information: A list of sources is provided at the bottom of this email!

Quick Physiology: Inner Ear, Brainstem, Eye Muscles

Within the ear, three semicircular canals detect rotations along the X, Y, and Z axes.

When the head turns to the left, the endolymph pushes a cupula, triggering a discharge on the right vestibular nerve.

This impulse travels through the vestibular nucleus, jumps to the abducens nucleus and the oculomotor nucleus, and then heads to the right lateral and left medial muscles: as a result, the eyeballs roll to the right, exactly with the opposite amplitude.

The information does not reach the brainstem: it does not wait for the cortex or cerebellum. This shortcut ensures that the text on your phone remains readable on a bumpy bus.

Why Train It?

The VOR is not fixed at birth; it continuously adapts to the speed of the sport, the width of the visual field, and the sensory load.

When the system is under-stimulated (sedentary work, few rapid rotations), the VOR gain < 1; the image slips, the correction becomes conscious, and costly in attention.

When the gain > 1 (too much cervical tension, eye rigidity), the scene jumps and causes nausea.

Field goal: gain around 1.0, a stable image without effort, regardless of head speed or direction of movement.

The gain of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) is the ratio between the speed of eye rotation and that of the head.

Interpretation

• Gain ≈ 1.0: the eyes exactly compensate for the head's rotation → stable image.

• Gain < 1.0: under-compensation; the image “slides” on the retina (blurriness, reading delay).

• Gain > 1.0: over-compensation; the scene “jumps” (tremors, nausea).

Sporting goal: Aim for a gain close to 1.0, adaptable up to 240 °/s in explosive athletes, ensuring clear vision in motion, freeing up postural energy, and securing information intake during exertion.

Practical Case, Volleyball Libero

Side dive, head whipping towards the ball, but the gaze disconnects: often too high a reception, inaccurate set.

Assessment:
1) Horizontal VOR test: reads 6 lines correctly on a stationary Snellen chart, but drops to 3 lines during rotations at about 180 °/s.
2) Dynamic sway with fixed eyes: oscillation + 25% compared to team baseline.

Intervention 3 × / week, 6 weeks:

1. VOR and Gaze Stabilization: fixate on a point one meter away, turn head left-right 10 × 10 s at about 180 °/s, rest 10 s, 3 sets.

2. Progression amplitude + speed + directions: increase to about 240 °/s and then add vertical rotation and diagonals in the directions identified in the assessment.

3. Field Integration: low-pass drill with a target held by the coach; the athlete must keep the LED clear while diving.

Result: after six weeks, horizontal VOR reads 6 moving lines on the Snellen chart, sway – 12%, successful set percentage + 14% over three matches, with no change in physical preparation plan.

Eye-Head-Balance Link

When the VOR rotates the eyes, the vestibular nuclei simultaneously activate the anti-gravity extensors.

In a goalkeeper, a head-shoulder upward/left to catch a cross mobilizes both the eyes (stabilized down-right) and the paravertebral muscles to prevent the spine from collapsing.

The more precise the VOR, the less the brain creates protective co-contractions. This results in a more “elastic” stride, a less rigid trunk, and more energy available for muscular power.

Micro VOR Routine (3-4 min) to Slip into Warm-Up

A1) 20 s: fixation + head rotations left-right at 120 °/s.

A2) 20 s: fixation + head rotations up-down at 120 °/s.

A3) 20 s: diagonals up-left ↔ down-right at 120 °/s.

A4) 20 s: diagonals up-right ↔ down-left at 120 °/s.

A5) 30 s: technical drill immediately to “stick” the reflex to sports motor skills.

Of course, we seek progressive overload by increasing angular speeds to approach 240°/s.

Fatigue and Adaptation

The VOR gain drops when internal temperature exceeds 38 °C or when blood glucose plummets: the brain prioritizes physiological regulation over visual stability.

During the hot phases of a match, a simple “reset” of 10 s of fixation + slow breathing often restores the image and avoids the mental racket of “I can’t see anything anymore”.

The LabO-RNP Team