Testing of vestibular function by active head movements.

内耳的前庭系统负责我们的平衡感，并在头部运动时保持清晰的视觉和稳定的姿势。这个复杂的相互依赖的感觉系统由三个成对的半规管和两个成对的耳石器官组成，半规管用于感知头部的旋转，耳石器官用于感知头部的位置和头部的线性运动。我们研究项目的一个主要目标是开发简单的测试，可用于临床或床边诊断每个前庭感觉区域的特定缺陷。目前大多数临床测试仅测试与头部水平旋转相关的系统部分，但内耳中还有许多其他感觉区域的功能状态需要评估，特别是那些与发出线性头部运动和头部位置信号相关的区域-耳石感觉区域。前庭测试中的通常原则是移动人的头部并测量响应于该被动运动而发生的眼球运动。我们最近的一项观察表明，在头部活动期间测量前庭功能是可能的。主动检测不需要昂贵的侵入性检测系统，可以在临床上进行。本项目将比较同一患者对主动和被动头部运动的眼动反应。我们将通过要求患者旋转头部或横向滑动头部来测试角度和线性传感系统，记录头部运动刺激和眼球运动反应。将对两组患者进行研究;恢复良好的患者和单侧前庭丧失后恢复不良的患者。我们希望，结果将是安全的，简单的，低成本的测试，将评估所有内耳感觉区域的功能状态，但在临床上实用。他们可能会提供答案，为什么有些病人没有恢复良好后，单侧损失，而其他人。

The vestibular system of the inner ear is responsible for our sense of balance and for maintaining clear vision and stable posture during head movements. This complex interdependent sensory system is comprised of three paired semicircular canals for sensing head rotations and two paired otolith organs for sensing head position and linear movements of the head. A major goal of our research programs is to develop simple tests which can be used in the clinic or at the bedside to diagnose specific deficits of each vestibular sensory region. Most present clinical tests only test the part of the system concerned with horizontal head rotations but there are many other sensory regions in the inner ear whose functional status needs to be evaluated, especially those regions concerned with signalling linear head movements and head position - the otolith sensory regions. The usual principle in vestibular testing is to move the person's head and measure the eye movement which occurs in response to that passive movement. One of our recent observations suggest that it may be possible to measure vestibular functioning during active head movements. Active testing does not require expensive, invasive testing systems and could be carried out in the clinic. This project will compare the eye movement response to active and passive head movements in the same patients. We will test both the angular and linear sensing systems by asking patients to rotate their head or slide it laterally, recording the head movement stimulus and eye movement response. Two groups of patients will be studied; those who have recovered well and those who are poorly recovered after unilateral vestibular loss. The outcome will, we hope, be safe simple low cost tests which will evaluate the functional status of all the inner ear sensory regions and yet be clinically practical. They may provide the answer as to why some patients do not recover well after unilateral loss whereas others do.