Applications of neuromodulation to explore vestibular cortical processing; new insights into the effects of direct current cortical modulation upon pursuit, VOR and VOR suppression
Abstract
Functional imaging, lesion studies and behavioural observations suggest that vestibular processing is lateralised to the non-dominant hemisphere. Moreover, disruption of interhemispheric balance via inhibition of left parietal cortex using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been associated with an asymmetric suppression of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). However, the mechanism by which the VOR was modulated remains unknown. In this paper we review the literature on non-invasive brain stimulation techniques which have been used to probe vestibular function over the last decade. In addition, we investigate the mechanisms whereby tDCS may modulate VOR, e.g. by acting upon pursuit, VOR suppression mechanisms or direct VOR modulation. We applied bi-hemispheric parietal tDCS in 11 healthy subjects and only observed significant effects on VOR gain (tdcs * condition p=0.041) – namely a trend for VOR gain increase with right anodal/left cathodal stimulation, and a decrease with right cathodal/left anodal stimulation. Hence, we suggest that the modulation of the VOR observed both here and in previous reports, is directly caused by top-down cortical control of the VOR as a result of disruption to interhemispheric balance, likely parietal.Citation
Ahmad, H., Arshad, Q., Siddiqui, S., Nigmatullina, Y. et al. (2014) Applications of neuromodulation to explore vestibular cortical processing; new insights into the effects of direct current cortical modulation upon pursuit, VOR and VOR suppression, Journal of Vestibular Research, 24 (5/6), pp. 453-458. DOI: 10.3233/VES-140530Publisher
IOS PressJournal
Journal of Vestibular ResearchType
Journal articleLanguage
enDescription
This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by IOS Press in Journal of Vestibular Research in 2014, available online: https://doi.org/10.3233/VES-140530 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.ISSN
0957-4271Sponsors
This work was funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MR/J004685/1).ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.3233/ves-140530
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/