Bárány chair

The staff demonstrates the effects on the sensory perception and spatial orientation of a test person in a Bárány chair. After first turning in the chair and then stopping, the test person tries to point to a test board.

The Barany chair or Bárány chair , named after the Austro-Hungarian physiologist Robert Bárány , is a horizontally rotating device that is used in flight physiology training, especially for flight students . The swivel chair is also used for therapeutic purposes.

test

The subject is seated in the chair blindfolded, then rotated about the vertical axis while the head is upright or tilted forward or sideways. The subject is then asked to perform tasks such as determining the direction of rotation while blindfolded, quickly changing the orientation of the head, or trying to point at a stationary object after stopping the chair without a blindfold. The chair is used to demonstrate spatial disorientation effects and to prove that the vestibular system cannot be trusted in flight. Pilots are taught to rely on their flight instruments instead .

The manufacturer specifies operating ranges of such chairs, which are now also electrically powered, with up to ± 180 ° / s or 450 ° / s (speed) and ± 90 ° / s² or 240 ° / s² (acceleration). The human stimulus thresholds are of course well below these value ranges.

use

The swivel chair is also used in the therapy of kinetoses .

Nobel Prize

Bárány used the chair in his research on the role of the inner ear in the sense of balance , for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1914 .

Web links

Commons : Bárány chair  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ amst.co.at
2. ↑ medicalsearch.com.au
3. ↑ Brian McGloin: Squadron aims to reduce use of air-sickness bags . Retrieved May 10, 2020.