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The new vestibular stimuli: sound and vibration—anatomical, physiological and clinical evidence

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Abstract

The classical view of the otoliths—as flat plates of fairly uniform receptors activated by linear acceleration dragging on otoconia and so deflecting the receptor hair bundles—has been replaced by new anatomical and physiological evidence which shows that the maculae are much more complex. There is anatomical spatial differentiation across the macula in terms of receptor types, hair bundle heights, stiffness and attachment to the overlying otolithic membrane. This anatomical spatial differentiation corresponds to the neural spatial differentiation of response dynamics from the receptors and afferents from different regions of the otolithic maculae. Specifically, receptors in a specialized band of cells, the striola, are predominantly type I receptors, with short, stiff hair bundles and looser attachment to the overlying otoconial membrane than extrastriolar receptors. At the striola the hair bundles project into holes in the otolithic membrane, allowing for fluid displacement to deflect the hair bundles and activate the cell. This review shows the anatomical and physiological evidence supporting the hypothesis that fluid displacement, generated by sound or vibration, deflects the short stiff hair bundles of type I receptors at the striola, resulting in neural activation of the irregular afferents innervating them. So these afferents are activated by sound or vibration and show phase-locking to individual cycles of the sound or vibration stimulus up to frequencies above 2000 Hz, underpinning the use of sound and vibration for clinical tests of vestibular function.

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Fig. 1

Reprinted from Curthoys and Vulovic (2011). Copyright © Springer-Verlag 2010. With permission of Springer

Fig. 2

Republished with the permission of John Wiley and Sons Inc, from Curthoys et al. (2011)

Fig. 3

Republished with permission of John Wiley and Sons, Inc., from Curthoys (2012)

Fig. 4

Reprinted by permission of Taylor & Francis Ltd, http://www.tandfonline.com, on behalf of Acta OtoLaryngologica AB (Ltd) from Hunter-Duvar (1983), Acta Otolaryngologica, http://www.informaworld.com

Fig. 5

(unpublished image kindly supplied by Dr Corrie Spoon; see Spoon et al. 2011)

Fig. 6

Reprinted from Curthoys et al. (2006). Copyright © Springer-Verlag 2006. With permission of Springer

Fig. 7

Republished with permission of Elsevier, from Curthoys et al. (2016)

Fig. 8

Republished with permission of Elsevier, from Curthoys et al. (2016)

Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Republished with permission of Elsevier, from Curthoys et al. (2016)

Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13

Republished with the permission of John Wiley and Sons Inc, from Curthoys et al. (2011)

Fig. 14

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Abbreviations

ABR:

Auditory brainstem response

ACS:

Air-conducted sound

BCV:

Bone-conducted vibration

Fz:

The midline of forehead at the hairline

IO:

Inferior oblique eye muscle

VEMP:

Vestibular-evoked myogenic potential

cVEMP:

Cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential

oVEMP:

Ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potential

SCD:

Semicircular canal dehiscence

n10:

The negative potential of the oVEMP at about 10 ms latency

SCM:

Sternocleidomastoid muscle

SVIN:

Skull vibration induced nystagmus

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Acknowledgements

I am very grateful for the help of Ann Burgess in preparing this paper, and for her excellent help over so many years in the research reported here. I am grateful to Wally Grant and Anna Lysakowski for their ideas and comments and to Julia Dlugaiczyk for assistance with the SCD experiments. Much of the work reported here has been supported by the Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation, and I am very grateful for their continued support, and for that of the National Health and Medical Research Foundation of Australia.

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  1. Vestibular Research Laboratory, School of Psychology, A 18, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Ian S. Curthoys

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The author is an unpaid consultant to Otometrics, but has received support from Otometrics for travel and attendance at conferences and workshops.

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Curthoys, I.S. The new vestibular stimuli: sound and vibration—anatomical, physiological and clinical evidence. Exp Brain Res 235, 957–972 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-4874-y

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