Sound activates not only the cochlea but also the vestibular end organs. Research on this phenomenon led to the discovery of the sound-evoked vestibular myogenic potentials recorded from the sternocleidomastoid muscles (cervical VEMP, or cVEMP). Since the cVEMP offers simplicity and the ability to stimulate each labyrinth separately, its values as a test of human vestibular function are widely ...

In seasonal breeding vertebrates, hormone regulation of catecholamines, which include dopamine and noradrenaline, may function, in part, to modulate behavioral responses to conspecific vocalizations. However, natural seasonal changes in catecholamine innervation of auditory nuclei is largely unexplored, especially in the peripheral auditory system, where encoding of social acoustic stimuli is i...

Recordings were made from single afferent fibers in the inferior vestibular nerve, which innervates the saccule and posterior semicircular canal. A substantial portion of the fibers with irregular background activity increased their firing in response to moderately intense clicks and tones. In responsive fibers, acoustic clicks evoked action potentials with minimum latencies of < or = 1.0 msec....

introduction:   the daf is a large persian frame drum used as a musical instrument in both popular and classical music which can induce a percussive sound at low frequencies (146–290 hz) with peaks of up to 130 dbspl. the percussive sounds have a power distribution in the region of saccular sensitivity. in view of the saccular stimulation by sound in humans, we decided to use cervical vestibula...

vestibular involvements have long been observed in otosclerotic patients. among vestibular structures saccule has the closest anatomical proximity to the sclerotic foci, so it is the most prone vestibular structure to be affected during the otosclerosis process. the aim of this study was to investigate the saccular function in patients suffering from otosclerosis, by means of vestibular evoked ...

background: rheumatoid arthritis (ra) is an autoimmune systemic disease. most common autoimmune diseases are multisystem disorders that may also present with otological manifestations, and autoimmune inner ear disease accompanied by vestibular dysfunction. this study aimed to compare the vestibular function between ra patients and normal subjects using cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potent...

The Otx1 and Otx2 genes are two murine orthologues of the Orthodenticle (Otd) gene in Drosophila. In the developing mouse embryo, both Otx genes are expressed in the rostral head region and in certain sense organs such as the inner ear. Previous studies have shown that mice lacking Otx1 display abnormal patterning of the brain, whereas embryos lacking Otx2 develop without heads. In this study, ...