The generation of mice lacking specific neurotrophins permits evaluation of the trophic requirements of particular neuronal populations throughout development. In the present study, we examined the developing vestibulocochlear system to determine the time course of neurotrophin dependence and to determine whether competition occurred among developing cochlear or vestibular neurons for available...

A dysfunction of the vestibular system is commonly characterized by a combination of phenomena involving perceptual, ocular motor, postural, and autonomic manifestations: vertigo/dizziness, nystagmus, ataxia, and nausea. These 4 manifestations correlate with different aspects of vestibular function and emanate from different sites within the central nervous system. The diagnosis of vestibular s...

The use of pharmacological agents is often the preferred approach to the management of vestibular dysfunction. In the vestibular sensory pathways, the sensory neuroepithelia are thought to be influenced by a diverse number of neuroactive substances that may act to enhance or inhibit the effect of the primary neurotransmitters [i.e., glutamate (Glu) and acetylcholine (ACh)] or alter their patter...

OBJECTIVE To describe the development of a new clinically applicable method for assessing vestibular function in humans with particular application in Meniere's disease. STUDY DESIGN Sophisticated signal-processing techniques were applied to data from human subject undergoing tilts stimulating the otolith organs and semicircular canals. The most sensitive representatives of vestibular functio...

OBJECTIVE Describe findings observed in ENG of patients with spinocerebellar ataxias. METHOD Forty-three patients were studied, and the following procedures were carried out: anamnesis, otorhinolaryngological and vestibular evaluation (ENG). RESULTS The clinical findings in the entire group of patients were: gait disturbances (83.72%), speech difficulties (48.83%), dizziness (41.86%) and dy...

The ocular motor system consists of several subsystems, including the vestibular ocular nystagmus saccade system, the pursuit system, the fixation and gaze-holding system and the vergence system. All these subsystems aid the stabilization of the images on the retina during eye and head movements and any kind of disturbance of one of the systems can cause instability of the eyes (e.g. nystagmus)...

Most of our knowledge concerning central vestibular pathways is derived from animal studies while evidence of the functional importance and localization of these pathways in humans is less well defined. The termination of these pathways at the thalamic level in humans is even less known. In this review we summarize the findings concerning the central subcortical vestibular pathways in humans an...

The vestibular system helps maintain equilibrium and clear vision through reflexes, but it also contributes to spatial perception. In recent years, research in the vestibular field has expanded to higher-level processing involving the cortex. Vestibular contributions to spatial cognition have been difficult to study because the circuits involved are inherently multisensory. Computational method...

OBJECTIVES Efforts are being made toward the development of a vestibular implant. If such a device is to mimic the physiology of the vestibular system, it must first be capable of restoring a baseline or "rest" activity in the vestibular pathways and then modulating it according to the direction and velocity of head movements. The aim of this study was to assess whether a human subject could ad...