Control of head position during postural responses is important to facilitate both the interpretation of vestibular signals and the stabilization of gaze. In these experiments, we compared head stabilization for two different postural tasks: 1) in response to perturbations at the head, and 2) in response to perturbations induced at the support surface, which perturb both body and head position....

A growing number of studies in humans demonstrate the involvement of vestibular information in tasks that are seemingly remote from well-known functions such as space constancy or postural control. In this review article we point out three emerging streams of research highlighting the importance of vestibular input: (1) Spatial Cognition: Modulation of vestibular signals can induce specific cha...

INTRODUCTION The vestibular evoked myogenic potential is a potential of mean latency that measures the muscle response to auditory stimulation. This potential can be generated from the contraction of the sternocleidomastoid muscle and also from the contraction of extraocular muscles in response to high-intensity sounds. This study presents a combined or simultaneous technique of cervical and oc...

INTRODUCTION There is described a transient nystagmus provoked by shaking the head in the horizontal plane for a few seconds in both normal subjects and patients that is called Head Shaking Test (HSN) as a diagnostic tool for vestibular dysfunction. HSN is generally accepted that is generated by an asymmetrical peripheral vestibular input and a central velocity storage mechanism, which integrat...

BACKGROUND Falls in elderly patients are associated with morbidity, mortality, and cost to the healthcare system. The development of falls risk assessment programs have represented a method of responding to what is known about injurious falls. The multidimensional assessments involve the comparison against normative data of a patient's performance on metrics known to influence the likelihood of...

Control of the symptoms of vertigo and motion sickness requires consideration of the neurophysiology of areas both intrinsic and extrinsic to the vestibular system proper. We review the essential anatomy and physiology of the vestibular system and the associated vomiting reflex.

This is a review of the normal methods for vestibular examination, both clinical and instrumental, to evaluate the vestibular system. Emphasis is given to the examination sequence and objectives in each method.

INTRODUCTION Patients with vestibular hypofunction, a typical finding in peripheral vestibular disorders, show body balance alterations. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the postural control of patients with vertigo and unilateral vestibular hypofunction. METHOD This is a clinical cross-sectional study. Twenty-five patients with vertigo and unilateral vestibular hypofunction and a homogeneous control ...

A new computerized method is proposed for correction and inhibition of unfavorable illusory (dizziness), vestibular-oculomotor (nystagmus) and vestibular-postural (balance) which allows to teach a subject to block generalization of an afferent signal to effector mechanisms of the central nervous system by developing a fixation reflex, employing a delayed feedback. Two ways of using this method ...

The vestibular system is responsible for transforming head motion into precise eye, head, and body movements that rapidly stabilize gaze and posture. How do central excitatory synapses mediate behavioral outputs accurately matched to sensory inputs over a wide dynamic range? Here we demonstrate that vestibular afferent synapses in vitro express frequency-independent transmission that spans thei...