Direct perturbation of neural integrator by bilateral galvanic vestibular stimulation

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• 作者：Kihwan Hong ; Hyeon-min Shim ; Minsoo Goh…
• 关键词：Bilateral galvanic vestibular stimulation ; Galvanic vestibular stimulation ; Caloric vestibular stimulation ; Vestibulo ; ocular reflex ; Nystagmus ; Neural integrator ; Alexander’s law
• 刊名：Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：55
• 期：2
• 页码：207-212
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Engineering
• 刊物主题：Human Physiology; Biomedical Engineering; Imaging / Radiology; Computer Applications;
• 出版者：Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• ISSN：1741-0444
• 卷排序：55

文摘

Caloric vestibular stimulation (CVS) and galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) act primarily on the peripheral vestibular system. Although the electrical current applied during GVS is thought to flow through peripheral vestibular organs, some current may spread into areas within the central nervous system, particularly when the bilateral galvanic vestibular stimulation (bGVS) method is used. According to Alexander’s law, the magnitude of nystagmus increases with eccentric gaze movement, due to the function of the neural integrator (NI); thus, if the information for vestibular stimulation corresponds to Alexander’s law, the peripheral vestibular organ is stimulated. Therefore, it would appear that if CVS results comply with Alexander’s law, and bGVS results do not, the sites stimulated by bGVS are not perfectly located in the peripheral vestibular area. In our experiments on normal human subjects, the magnitude of nystagmus under CVS increased with rising gaze eccentricity in the direction that the magnitude of the nystagmus increases, and this change was found to follow Alexander’s law. However, in the case of nystagmus under bGVS, results did not follow Alexander’s law. In addition, study of the influences of bGVS at different current intensities on nystagmus magnitude showed that bGVS at 5 mA distorted nystagmus magnitude more than at 3 mA, which suggests bGVS acts not only on the peripheral vestibular nerves, but also on some areas of the central nervous system, particularly the NI. According to our experiments, bGVS directly affects neural integrator function.