In the famous " Vertigo" (awkwardly translated into "Vertigo") of Hitchcock , Scottie is a former policeman from vertigo hence the title of the film, and because of this problem is the victim of a melodramatic accents. But there is in this film a deliberate confusion and distinguished between, the giddy "true" that seeks to make us feel the film in several scenes, and the psychological problem Scottie has linked his personal experience, and that's where the talent Hitchcock. Hopefully this article does not give you dizzy dizzy see what ... a perception problem ...
Our head over his remarkable brain is equipped with standard sensors propositional, that the eyes are especially peripheral vision, and the vestibular apparatus located in the inner ear. Both systems include continuously inform the body of his position in space: the proprioception, a kind of perception whatsoever. When your body is on a high point on a taut string, a rock, or before a bungee jump, it feels easy unpleasant sensation rotary sometimes accompanied by other signs (nausea, tachycardia, cold sweat. ..). This is true vertigo the not to be confused with fainting.
It is linked to a contradiction between the information from the eyes and the vestibular receptors ( maculae and semicircular canals ) that inform the head position and its displacement (linear acceleration and gyro). In fact if you look down, your eyes tell you that the vacuum around you, so that the sensation of falling is an expected consequence of this situation. But your inner ear she informs you that the position of your head is stable and not subject to any acceleration due to the lack of support.
Manage contradiction ...
The brain has faced such a disagreement presume a dangerous situation and abnormal (which is the case) and will thus trigger a set of responses to correct this situation (increased heart rate by example, tonic muscle activity causing the tension and sweating, nausea or vomiting for a possible poison ingested by mistake), we find here the symptoms of vertigo. Note that the dizziness disappears when the information is again concordant for example when the bungee jumper jumped dizziness disappears, same principle for the paratroopers. These
dizziness are shared by all, but can be tamed because the brain is plastic (it means that the brain can be permanently changed easily). And climbers, tightrope walkers and other acrobats are not subject to vertigo because their brain is accustomed to this contradiction between the signals.
Other cases of inconsistencies between the proprioceptive receptors are well known: motion sickness, or dizzy after a stint on the turnstile ...
The acrophobia not for the acrobats!
From Ancient Greek ἄκρος, Acros, "high, extreme" and φόβος phobos "fear, fear", the acrophobia is a psychological disorder designating the fear of a situation in which the person should or standing near the empty or height. Like all phobias it is linked to the experience of individual and acquired, while vertigo is innate. So if Scottie is afraid of heights is by seeing his fellow police officer falling off while he tried to save ( see video below ), therefore he fears this type of situation because of his guilt, but it is not about dizziness in the physiological sense of the term, since the individual anxiety the idea of being in this situation before and is afraid of being in an elevated position (Scottie can not go to help "madeleine "...).
Like most psychological problems can be "cured" of this type of problem and at the end of the film Scottie, comes at a not empty, the wind in your hair, and remains motionless.
The opening scene of the film Vertigo - Alfred Hitchcock - 1958.
[Note the use of offset when traveling Scottie stares into space, giving the impression that the image grows, and illustrating the sensation of vertigo. This is actually a camera moving down exactly offset by a zoom]
Finally, Hitchcock in Vertigo tries to make us live the pathological acrophobia Scottie us by imposing various methods for making traveling with offset (traveling until cleared by a zoom out, see video) physiological vertigo that we can all feel and are related to problems of perception ... Well done Mr Hitchcock, master of suspense, and psychological / physiology?
to see Vertigo (IMDB page)