Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is a multifactorial disorder including neurological factors. A dysfunction of the sensorimotor networks processing vestibular information could be related to spine deformation. This study investigates whether feed-forward vestibulomotor control or sensory reweighting mechanisms are impaired in adolescent scoliosis patients. Vestibular evoked postural responses we...

KEY POINTS Reaching movements can be perturbed by vestibular input, but the function of this response is unclear. Here, we applied galvanic vestibular stimulation concurrently with real body movement while subjects maintained arm position either fixed in space or fixed with respect to their body. During the fixed-in-space conditions, galvanic vestibular stimulation caused large changes in arm t...

Objective Vestibular signals are involved in higher cortical functions like spatial orientation and its disorders. Vestibular dysfunction contributes, for example, to spatial neglect which can be transiently improved by caloric stimulation. The exact roles and mechanisms of the vestibular and visual systems for the recovery of neglect are not yet known. Methods Resting-state functional connec...

OBJECTIVES To describe the number and type of stimulation events and the relationship of stimulation to sedation level in patients receiving mechanical ventilation. METHODS A 4-hour direct observation was conducted in 103 patients receiving mechanical ventilation. Stimulation events and sedation level before and after the stimulation were documented. Eight categories of stimulation events wer...

To investigate the vestibular and somatosensory interaction in human postural control, a galvanic vestibular stimulation of cosine bell shape resulting in a small forward or backward body lean was paired with three vibrations of both soleus muscles. The induced body lean was registered by the position of the center of foot pressure (CoP). During a quiet stance with eyes closed the vibration of ...

The isolated whole brain (IWB) preparation of the guinea pig was used to investigate the floccular modulation of vestibular-evoked responses in abducens and oculomotor nerves and abducens nucleus; for identification of flocculus target neurons (FTNs) in the vestibular nuclei and intracellular study of some of their physiological properties; to search for possible flocculus-dependent plasticity ...

Studies in nonhuman primates have provided evidence of rapid neural reorganization in somatosensory cortex after brain damage [1] and amputation [2]. Furthermore, there is also evidence of experience-dependent plasticity in both human [3-5] and nonhuman primates [6] that is induced by repetitive tactile stimulation. Given the evidence of plasticity subsequent to both neural damage and tactile e...

Our sense of balance and spatial orientation strongly depends on the correct functionality of our vestibular system. Vestibular dysfunction can lead to blurred vision and impaired balance and spatial orientation, causing a significant decrease in quality of life. Recent studies have shown that vestibular implants offer a possible treatment for patients with vestibular dysfunction. The close pro...

Noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation has been associated with numerous cognitive and behavioural effects, such as enhancement of visual memory in healthy individuals, improvement of visual deficits in stroke patients, as well as possibly improvement of motor function in Parkinson's disease; yet, the mechanism of action is unclear. Since Parkinson's and other neuropsychiatric diseases are chara...

We investigated changes of postural responses to repeated bipolar galvanic vestibular stimulation on 5 consecutive days and once again after 3 months. Subjects consisted of 21 healthy volunteers. Except for the first day did the induced torque variance in response to galvanic vestibular stimulation not decrease within each test session, but there was a major reduction from day to day (p< 0.001)...