Increased Velocity Storage in Subjects with Meniere's Disease

• Published in: The journal of international advanced otology Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 87 - 91
• Main Authors: Krstulovic, Claudio, Atrache Al Attrache, Nabil, Pérez Garrigues, Herminio, Argente-Escrig, Herminia, Bataller Alberola, Luis, Morera Pérez, Constantino
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Turkey Mediterranean Society for Otology and Audiology 01-04-2016
• Subjects: Acceleration; Adult; Aged; Electric Stimulation; Electronystagmography; Female; Functional Laterality; Humans; Male; Meniere Disease - physiopathology; Middle Aged; Neurons, Afferent - physiology; Reference Values; Reflex, Vestibulo-Ocular - physiology; Rotation; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; Synaptic Transmission - physiology; Vestibular Function Tests; Vestibular Nerve - physiopathology; Vestibule, Labyrinth - physiopathology
• ISSN: 1308-7649; 2148-3817
• DOI: 10.5152/iao.2016.1947

Velocity storage mechanism is a multisensory rotation estimator; it compensates for errors in the information provided by the peripheral vestibular organs by means of an adjustment in the duration of the vestibular signal. The aim of this study was to determine the activity of the velocity storage mechanism in the presence of a labyrinthine disorder, using galvanic vestibular stimulation to cause direct activation of the vestibular afferent neurons.
Forty-one subjects with definite Meniere's disease (MD) and 36 healthy volunteers were evaluated using a 20-s galvanic vestibular stimulation.
We found a post-stimulus nystagmus overshoot exclusively in subjects with MD (47% in subjects with unilateral disease and 82% in subjects with bilateral disease), but no overshoot in healthy subjects.
Because post-stimulus nystagmus overshoot is caused by the velocity storage mechanism, this finding suggests an increase in the velocity storage in subjects with a labyrinthine disease.