Publications by authors named "Gerda Wyssen"

Article Synopsis
  • Strong magnetic fields can cause dizziness and related symptoms due to their influence on the inner ear's balance mechanisms, a phenomenon known as magnetic vestibular stimulation (MVS).
  • Researchers have created a specialized setup within a 7T MRI scanner to study how these strong magnetic fields affect eye movements (nystagmus) and cognitive responses by adjusting participants' head positions.
  • Understanding MVS may aid clinical research on vestibular disorders and provide insights into how balance information interacts with cognitive functions, particularly in contexts where sensory information may conflict.
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Previous studies have found that peripheral vestibular dysfunction is associated with altered volumes in different brain structures, especially in the hippocampus. However, published evidence is conflicting. Based on previous findings, we compared hippocampal volume, as well as supramarginal, superior temporal, and postcentral gyrus in a sample of 55 patients with different conditions of peripheral vestibular dysfunction (bilateral, chronic unilateral, acute unilateral) to 39 age- and sex-matched healthy controls.

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Vestibular perceptual thresholds refer to the motion intensity required to enable a participant to detect or discriminate a motion based on vestibular input. Using passive motion profiles provided by six degree-of-motion platforms, vestibular perceptual thresholds can be estimated for any kind of motion and thereby target each of the sub-components of the vestibular end-organ. Assessments of vestibular thresholds are clinically relevant as they complement diagnostic tools such as caloric irrigation, the head impulse test (HIT), or vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs), which only provide information on sub-components of the vestibular system, but none of them allow for assessing all components.

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There is growing evidence that vestibular information is not only involved in reflexive eye movements and the control of posture but it also plays an important role in higher order cognitive processes. Previous behavioral research has shown that concomitant vestibular stimuli influence performance in tasks that involve imagined self-rotations. These results suggest that imagined and perceived body rotations share common mechanisms.

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