Behavioural and physiological tests of clinical indicators of vestibular function.

内耳的一部分负责我们的平衡感，保持清晰的视野和稳定的姿势。反复出现的眩晕发作和持续的不平衡会扰乱患者生命中最有生产力的岁月，与平衡有关的跌倒占老年人意外死亡的一半以上。尽管如此，大多数医生发现头晕很难诊断，也无法治疗，所以专家平衡障碍诊所每年要看很多病人，但等待的时间仍然很长。很明显，我们需要提高对眩晕患者的认识和治疗，通过对前庭功能障碍的科学认识，以及对患者评估和治疗的技术改进，将会有所改善。该项目旨在确定平衡功能的3个简单的新指标是否有效，通过对豚鼠的测试来了解它们的工作方式。

Part of the inner ear is responsible for our sense of balance and for maintaining clear vision and stable posture. Recurring vertigo attacks and persistent imbalance can disrupt the most productive years of patients' lives and balance-related falls account for more the half of accidental deaths in the elderly. Despite this most doctors find dizziness difficult to diagnose and impossible to treat, so specialist Balance Disorders Clinics see many patients a year but still have very long waiting times. There is then clearly a major need to improve the understanding and the treatment of dizzy patients and improvement will come about through scientific understanding of vestibular dysfunction, and technological realization of improvements in the assessment and treatment of patients. This project seeks to identify whether 3 simple new indicators of balance function are valid, using tests on guinea pigs to understand the way in which they work.