This is a review of recently published papers showing that bone-conducted vibration of the head causes linear acceleration stimulation of both inner ears and this linear acceleration is an effective way of selectively activating otolithic afferent neurons. This simple stimulus is used in a new test to evaluate clinically the function of the otoliths of the human inner ear. Single neuron studies...

Key points • The Tullio phenomenon is sound-induced vertigo, nystagmus, or both. • Hennebert sign is pressure-induced vertigo, nystagmus, or both, elicited by insufflation of the external auditory canal. • Typically, in affected patients with superior semicircular canal dehiscence syndrome, there is a several-year history of symptoms that may include sound-induced vertigo (Tullio phenomenon), p...

Vestibular reflexes in humans can be assessed by means of acoustically evoked responses of myogenic origin. For the vestibular-collic pathway this is termed the vestibular evoked myogenic potential (or VEMP) and for the vestibular-ocular pathway the ocular VEMP (or OVEMP). Usually VEMPs require an averaging process to obtain a clear response against the background myogenic activity, but dependi...