Over 90 million Americans (greater than 40 percent) will seek medical attention for dizziness or some other balance disorder sometime in their life. A NIH working committee recently reported that at least 2 million Americans experience chronic impairment due to dizziness or other balance disorders, causing medical expenses in excess of 1 billion dollars per year. Many of these chronically impaired patients could benefit from vestibular rehabilitation, and some of these patients could benefit from a vestibular prosthesis (similar to the cochlear implant for profound sensorineural hearing loss). This proposal directly addresses both of these health care needs. Specifically, the proposed studies develop and test a prototype neural prosthesis. Furthermore, to enhance our understanding of vestibular adaptation, the proposed studies use this prototype device to investigate adaptation to changes in peripheral vestibular stimulation. This study will be the first to comprehensively investigate adaptation to changes in chronic, peripheral stimulation of the vestibular system. A better understanding of vestibular adaptation will lead to improved vestibular rehabilitation. These general scientific goals will be achieved by investigating the following specific aims: 1. Study the importance of bilateral versus unilateral cues. 2. Study how the nervous system adapts to changes in peripheral stimulation of the branch of the vestibular (VIIIth) nerve that innervates the lateral semicircular canal. 3. Study how the nervous system combines sensory information from the otolith organs and semicircular canals when the rotational cues are provided via electrical stimulation. 4. Study how the nervous system adapts to yaw rotational cues delivered to a nerve branch innervating one of the vertical canals that does not normally include yaw rotational information. 5. Study how the nervous system adapts to constant-rate electrical stimulation while stationary, with and without visual cues. All of these proposed specific aims will be investigated by measuring changes in the vestibulo-ocular responses induced by changes in chronic, patterned, electrical stimulation of the peripheral vestibular system.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01DC003066-08
Application #
6399814
Study Section
Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience 8 (IFCN)
Program Officer
Platt, Christopher
Project Start
1996-09-01
Project End
2006-08-31
Budget Start
2001-09-01
Budget End
2002-08-31
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
2001
Total Cost
$454,611
Indirect Cost
Name
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
Department
Type
DUNS #
073825945
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02114
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Saginaw, Michael A; Gong, Wangsong; Haburcakova, Csilla et al. (2011) Attenuation of eye movements evoked by a vestibular implant at the frequency of the baseline pulse rate. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 58:2732-9
Gong, Wangsong; Haburcakova, Csilla; Merfeld, Daniel M (2008) Vestibulo-ocular responses evoked via bilateral electrical stimulation of the lateral semicircular canals. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 55:2608-19
Merfeld, Daniel M; Haburcakova, Csilla; Gong, Wangsong et al. (2007) Chronic vestibulo-ocular reflexes evoked by a vestibular prosthesis. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 54:1005-15
Merfeld, Daniel M; Gong, Wangsong; Morrissey, Jennifer et al. (2006) Acclimation to chronic constant-rate peripheral stimulation provided by a vestibular prosthesis. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 53:2362-72