Computer Models of the Vestibular Head Tilt Response, and Their Relationship to EVestG and Meniere's Disease
This paper attempts to explain response components of Electrovestibulography (EVestG) using a computer simulation of a three-canal model of the vestibular system. EVestG is a potentially new diagnostic method for Meniere's disease. EVestG is a variant of Electrocochleography (ECOG), which has been used as a standard method for diagnosing Meniere's disease - it can be used to measure the SP/AP ratio, where an SP/AP ratio greater than 0.4-0.5 is indicative of Meniere-s Disease. In EVestG, an applied head tilt replaces the acoustic stimulus of ECOG. The EVestG output is also an SP/AP type plot, where SP is the summing potential, and AP is the action potential amplitude. AP is thought of as being proportional to the size of a population of afferents in an excitatory neural firing state. A simulation of the fluid volume displacement in the vestibular labyrinth in response to various types of head tilts (ipsilateral, backwards and horizontal rotation) was performed, and a simple neural model based on these simulations developed. The simple neural model shows that the change in firing rate of the utricle is much larger in magnitude than the change in firing rates of all three semi-circular canals following a head tilt (except in a horizontal rotation). The data suggests that the change in utricular firing rate is a minimum 2-3 orders of magnitude larger than changes in firing rates of the canals during ipsilateral/backward tilts. Based on these results, the neural response recorded by the electrode in our EVestG recordings is expected to be dominated by the utricle in ipsilateral/backward tilts (It is important to note that the effect of the saccule and efferent signals were not taken into account in this model). If the utricle response dominates the EVestG recordings as the modeling results suggest, then EVestG has the potential to diagnose utricular hair cell damage due to a viral infection (which has been cited as one possible cause of Meniere's Disease).
[1] Rabbitt R.D., Damiano E.R., and Grant J.W (2004), "Biomechanics of
the Semicircular Canals and Otolith Organs", in The Vestibular System,
Springer, Chapter 4.
[2] Damiano E.R. and Rabbitt R.D. (1996), "A Singular Perturbation Model
of Fluid Dynamics in the Vestibular Semicircular Canal and Ampulla",
The Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 307, pp. 333-372.
[3] Rabbitt R.D. and Damiano E.R. (1992), "A hydro elastic model of macro
mechanics in the endolymphatic vestibular canal", The Journal of Fluid
Mechanics, vol. 238, pp. 337-369
[4] Aso S., Wattanabe Y., and Mizukoshi K. (1991), "A clinical study of
electrocochleography in Meniere-s disease", Acta. Otolaryngol.
(Stockh.), vol. 111, pp. 44 - 52.
[5] Yamauchi A., Rabbitt R.D., Boyle R., and Highstein S.M. (2001),
"Relationship between Inner-Ear Fluid Pressure and Semicircular Canal
Afferent Nerve Discharge", The Journal of the Association for Research
in Otolaryngology, vol. 03, pp. 26 - 44.
[6] Gibson W.P.R. and Prasher D.K. (1983), "Electrocochleography and its
role in the diagnosis and monitoring of endolymphatic hydrops",
Otolaryngol. Clin. North Am., vol. 16, pp. 59 - 68.
[7] Tribukait A. and Rosenhall U. (2001), "Directional Sensitivity of the
Human Macula utriculi Based on Morphological Characteristics", The
Journal of Audiology & Neuro-otology, vol. 6, pp. 98 - 107.
[8] Mosicki E. K., Elkins E.F., Baum H.M., and McNamara P.M. (1985),
"Hearing loss in the elderly: an epidemiologic study of the Framingham
Heart Study Cohort", Ear and Hearing, vol. 6(4), pp. 90 -184.
[9] Rabbitt R.D. and Highstein S.M. (1999), "Influence of Surgical
Plugging on Horizontal Semicircular Canal Mechanics and Afferent
Response Dynamics", The Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 82,
pp.1033-1052.
[10] Kim. H. H., Kumar. A., Battista R. A. and R. J. Wiet. (2005),
"Electrocochleography in patients with Meniere's disease", American
Journal of Otolaryngology, vol. 26, Issue 2 (March-April), pp. 128-131.
[11] Kreyszig E. (1993), Advanced Engineering Mathematics, Seventh
Edition, John Wiley and Sons.
[12] Wilson V.J. and Jones G.M. (1979), Mammalian Vestibular Physiology,
Plenum Press, New York.
[13] Shoushtarian M. (2005), The relationship between
Electrovestibulography (EvestG) and Parkinson-s Disease, Electrical and
Computer Systems Engineering, Monash University (transfer report).
[14] Garrett, A. (2006), Characterisation of Sensory Cells within the
Vestibular System Using Electrovestibulography (EVestG), Electrical
and Computer Systems Engineering, Monash University (transfer
report).
[15] Baloh R.W. and Honrubia V. (2001), Clinical Neurophysiology of the
Vestibular System, Third Edition, Oxford University Press.
[16] Rajguru S.M., Ifediba M.A., and Rabbitt R.D. (2004), "Three-
Dimensional Biomechanical Model of Benign Paroxysmal Positional
Vertigo", Annals of Biomedical Engineering, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 831 -
846.
[17] Obrist D. (2007), Fluid Mechanics of Semicircular Canals -Revisited,
Institute Of Fluid Dynamics, ETH ZURICH, Sonneggstrasse 3, 8092
Zurich, Switzerland
[18] Lithgow B.J., Shoushtarian M., and Heibert D. (2006),
"ElectroVestibuloGram (EVestG): The separation of Benign Paroxysmal
Positional Vertigo and Meniere-s Disease", MedSip2006, Glasgow, UK,
CD Rom, 4 pages.
[19] Goldberg J.M. et al (1990), "The Vestibular Nerve of the Chinchilla IV.
Discharge Properties of Utricular Afferents", The Journal of
Neurophysiology, vol. 63, no. 4, pp. 781 -789.
[20] Lithgow B.J. (Inventor), "A neural event process", Patent,
(WO2006/024102, priority date 1st September 2004).
[21] De Vries, H. (1950), "The mechanics of the labyrinth otoliths", Acta
Oto-Laryngol., vol. 38, pp. 262 - 273.
[22] Lithgow B.J. (Inventor), "A neural event system", Patent,
(PCT/AU2007/902924, priority date June 2007).
[23] Selmani Z., Marttila T., and Pyykko H. (2005), "Incidence of virus
infection as a cause of Meniere-s disease or endolymphatic hydrops
assessed by electrocochleography", Eur. Arch. Otorhinolaryngol., vol.
262, pp. 331 - 334.
[24] Beasley B.J.P. and Jones N.S., (1996),"Historical Article- Meniere-s
Disease: evolution of a definition" The Journal of Laryngology and
Otology, vol. 10, pp. 1107-1113.
[25] Lsyakowski A. and Goldberg J.M. (2004), "Morphophysiology of the
Vestibular Periphery", in The Vestibular System, Springer, Chapter 3.
[26] Sadeghi S.G., Minor L.B., and Cullen K.E. (2007), "Response of
Vestibular-Nerve Afferents to Active and Passive Rotations Under
Normal Conditions and After Unilateral Labyrinthectomy", Journal of
Neurophysiology, vol. 97, pp. 1503 - 1514.
[27] Lindenlaub T. et. al. (1995), "Convergent Evolution of the Vestibular
Organ in the Subterranean Mole-Rats, Cryptomys and Spalax, as
Compared With the Aboveground Rat, Rattus", Journal of Morphology,
vol. 224, pp. 303-311.
[28] Goldberg J.M. et al (1990), "The Vestibular Nerve of the Chinchilla. V.
Relation Between Afferent Discharge Properties and Peripheral
Innervation Patterns in the Utricular Macula", Journal of
Neurophysiology, vol. 63, no. 4, pp. 791 -804.
[29] Franz, B. (2002), "A method of measuring the activity of a biological
system", Patent, International publication number WO 02/47547 A1.
[30] Ferraro J., Best L., and Kaufman I. (1983), "The use of
electrocochleography in the diagnosis, assessment and monitoring of
endolymphatic hydrops", Otolaryngologic clinics of North America, vol.
16, pp. 69-82.
[31] Dallos P. (1973), The auditory periphery: Biophysics and physiology,
New York Academic Press.
[32] Grant J.W. and Cotton J.R. (1991), "A model for otolith dynamic
response with viscoelastic gel layer", Journal of Vestibular Research,
vol. 1, pp. 139 - 151.
[33] Grant J.W., Huang C.C. and Cotton J.R. (1994), "Theoretical mechanical
frequency response of the otolithic organs", Journal of Vestibular
Research, vol. 4, pp. 137 - 151.
[34] Jaeger R., Takagi A., and Haslwanter T. (2002), "Modeling the relation
between head orientations and otolith responses in humans", Hearing
Research, vol. 173, pp. 29 - 42.
[35] Lithgow B.J., Garrett A., and Heibert D. (2008), "EVestG: A Measure
for Meniere-s Disease", 29th Annual International Conference of the
IEEE EMBS, Vancouver, Canada, 4 pages accepted.
[36] Smith C.A. et al (1958), "DC Potentials of the Membranous Labyrinth",
Am. Journal of Physiology, vol. 193(I), pp. 203 - 206.
[37] Motulsky H. (1995), Intuitive Biostatistics, Oxford University Press,
New York, pp. 285 - 286.
[38] Naganuma H. et al. (2003), "Three Dimensional Analysis of
Morphological Aspects of the Human Utricular Macula", Ann. Otol.
Rhinol. Laryngol., vol. 112, no. 5, pp. 419.
[39] Obrist D. and Hegemann S. (2007), Fluid Mechanics of Benign
Paroxysmal Vertigo (BPPV), Institute Of Fluid Dynamics, ETH
ZURICH, Sonneggstrasse 3, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
[40] Hall J.W. (1992), Handbook of Auditory Evoked Responses, Allyn and
Bacon; Needham Heights, Massachusetts.
[1] Rabbitt R.D., Damiano E.R., and Grant J.W (2004), "Biomechanics of
the Semicircular Canals and Otolith Organs", in The Vestibular System,
Springer, Chapter 4.
[2] Damiano E.R. and Rabbitt R.D. (1996), "A Singular Perturbation Model
of Fluid Dynamics in the Vestibular Semicircular Canal and Ampulla",
The Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 307, pp. 333-372.
[3] Rabbitt R.D. and Damiano E.R. (1992), "A hydro elastic model of macro
mechanics in the endolymphatic vestibular canal", The Journal of Fluid
Mechanics, vol. 238, pp. 337-369
[4] Aso S., Wattanabe Y., and Mizukoshi K. (1991), "A clinical study of
electrocochleography in Meniere-s disease", Acta. Otolaryngol.
(Stockh.), vol. 111, pp. 44 - 52.
[5] Yamauchi A., Rabbitt R.D., Boyle R., and Highstein S.M. (2001),
"Relationship between Inner-Ear Fluid Pressure and Semicircular Canal
Afferent Nerve Discharge", The Journal of the Association for Research
in Otolaryngology, vol. 03, pp. 26 - 44.
[6] Gibson W.P.R. and Prasher D.K. (1983), "Electrocochleography and its
role in the diagnosis and monitoring of endolymphatic hydrops",
Otolaryngol. Clin. North Am., vol. 16, pp. 59 - 68.
[7] Tribukait A. and Rosenhall U. (2001), "Directional Sensitivity of the
Human Macula utriculi Based on Morphological Characteristics", The
Journal of Audiology & Neuro-otology, vol. 6, pp. 98 - 107.
[8] Mosicki E. K., Elkins E.F., Baum H.M., and McNamara P.M. (1985),
"Hearing loss in the elderly: an epidemiologic study of the Framingham
Heart Study Cohort", Ear and Hearing, vol. 6(4), pp. 90 -184.
[9] Rabbitt R.D. and Highstein S.M. (1999), "Influence of Surgical
Plugging on Horizontal Semicircular Canal Mechanics and Afferent
Response Dynamics", The Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 82,
pp.1033-1052.
[10] Kim. H. H., Kumar. A., Battista R. A. and R. J. Wiet. (2005),
"Electrocochleography in patients with Meniere's disease", American
Journal of Otolaryngology, vol. 26, Issue 2 (March-April), pp. 128-131.
[11] Kreyszig E. (1993), Advanced Engineering Mathematics, Seventh
Edition, John Wiley and Sons.
[12] Wilson V.J. and Jones G.M. (1979), Mammalian Vestibular Physiology,
Plenum Press, New York.
[13] Shoushtarian M. (2005), The relationship between
Electrovestibulography (EvestG) and Parkinson-s Disease, Electrical and
Computer Systems Engineering, Monash University (transfer report).
[14] Garrett, A. (2006), Characterisation of Sensory Cells within the
Vestibular System Using Electrovestibulography (EVestG), Electrical
and Computer Systems Engineering, Monash University (transfer
report).
[15] Baloh R.W. and Honrubia V. (2001), Clinical Neurophysiology of the
Vestibular System, Third Edition, Oxford University Press.
[16] Rajguru S.M., Ifediba M.A., and Rabbitt R.D. (2004), "Three-
Dimensional Biomechanical Model of Benign Paroxysmal Positional
Vertigo", Annals of Biomedical Engineering, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 831 -
846.
[17] Obrist D. (2007), Fluid Mechanics of Semicircular Canals -Revisited,
Institute Of Fluid Dynamics, ETH ZURICH, Sonneggstrasse 3, 8092
Zurich, Switzerland
[18] Lithgow B.J., Shoushtarian M., and Heibert D. (2006),
"ElectroVestibuloGram (EVestG): The separation of Benign Paroxysmal
Positional Vertigo and Meniere-s Disease", MedSip2006, Glasgow, UK,
CD Rom, 4 pages.
[19] Goldberg J.M. et al (1990), "The Vestibular Nerve of the Chinchilla IV.
Discharge Properties of Utricular Afferents", The Journal of
Neurophysiology, vol. 63, no. 4, pp. 781 -789.
[20] Lithgow B.J. (Inventor), "A neural event process", Patent,
(WO2006/024102, priority date 1st September 2004).
[21] De Vries, H. (1950), "The mechanics of the labyrinth otoliths", Acta
Oto-Laryngol., vol. 38, pp. 262 - 273.
[22] Lithgow B.J. (Inventor), "A neural event system", Patent,
(PCT/AU2007/902924, priority date June 2007).
[23] Selmani Z., Marttila T., and Pyykko H. (2005), "Incidence of virus
infection as a cause of Meniere-s disease or endolymphatic hydrops
assessed by electrocochleography", Eur. Arch. Otorhinolaryngol., vol.
262, pp. 331 - 334.
[24] Beasley B.J.P. and Jones N.S., (1996),"Historical Article- Meniere-s
Disease: evolution of a definition" The Journal of Laryngology and
Otology, vol. 10, pp. 1107-1113.
[25] Lsyakowski A. and Goldberg J.M. (2004), "Morphophysiology of the
Vestibular Periphery", in The Vestibular System, Springer, Chapter 3.
[26] Sadeghi S.G., Minor L.B., and Cullen K.E. (2007), "Response of
Vestibular-Nerve Afferents to Active and Passive Rotations Under
Normal Conditions and After Unilateral Labyrinthectomy", Journal of
Neurophysiology, vol. 97, pp. 1503 - 1514.
[27] Lindenlaub T. et. al. (1995), "Convergent Evolution of the Vestibular
Organ in the Subterranean Mole-Rats, Cryptomys and Spalax, as
Compared With the Aboveground Rat, Rattus", Journal of Morphology,
vol. 224, pp. 303-311.
[28] Goldberg J.M. et al (1990), "The Vestibular Nerve of the Chinchilla. V.
Relation Between Afferent Discharge Properties and Peripheral
Innervation Patterns in the Utricular Macula", Journal of
Neurophysiology, vol. 63, no. 4, pp. 791 -804.
[29] Franz, B. (2002), "A method of measuring the activity of a biological
system", Patent, International publication number WO 02/47547 A1.
[30] Ferraro J., Best L., and Kaufman I. (1983), "The use of
electrocochleography in the diagnosis, assessment and monitoring of
endolymphatic hydrops", Otolaryngologic clinics of North America, vol.
16, pp. 69-82.
[31] Dallos P. (1973), The auditory periphery: Biophysics and physiology,
New York Academic Press.
[32] Grant J.W. and Cotton J.R. (1991), "A model for otolith dynamic
response with viscoelastic gel layer", Journal of Vestibular Research,
vol. 1, pp. 139 - 151.
[33] Grant J.W., Huang C.C. and Cotton J.R. (1994), "Theoretical mechanical
frequency response of the otolithic organs", Journal of Vestibular
Research, vol. 4, pp. 137 - 151.
[34] Jaeger R., Takagi A., and Haslwanter T. (2002), "Modeling the relation
between head orientations and otolith responses in humans", Hearing
Research, vol. 173, pp. 29 - 42.
[35] Lithgow B.J., Garrett A., and Heibert D. (2008), "EVestG: A Measure
for Meniere-s Disease", 29th Annual International Conference of the
IEEE EMBS, Vancouver, Canada, 4 pages accepted.
[36] Smith C.A. et al (1958), "DC Potentials of the Membranous Labyrinth",
Am. Journal of Physiology, vol. 193(I), pp. 203 - 206.
[37] Motulsky H. (1995), Intuitive Biostatistics, Oxford University Press,
New York, pp. 285 - 286.
[38] Naganuma H. et al. (2003), "Three Dimensional Analysis of
Morphological Aspects of the Human Utricular Macula", Ann. Otol.
Rhinol. Laryngol., vol. 112, no. 5, pp. 419.
[39] Obrist D. and Hegemann S. (2007), Fluid Mechanics of Benign
Paroxysmal Vertigo (BPPV), Institute Of Fluid Dynamics, ETH
ZURICH, Sonneggstrasse 3, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
[40] Hall J.W. (1992), Handbook of Auditory Evoked Responses, Allyn and
Bacon; Needham Heights, Massachusetts.
@article{"International Journal of Medical, Medicine and Health Sciences:58737", author = "Daniel Heibert and Brian Lithgow and Kerry Hourigan", title = "Computer Models of the Vestibular Head Tilt Response, and Their Relationship to EVestG and Meniere's Disease", abstract = "This paper attempts to explain response components of Electrovestibulography (EVestG) using a computer simulation of a three-canal model of the vestibular system. EVestG is a potentially new diagnostic method for Meniere's disease. EVestG is a variant of Electrocochleography (ECOG), which has been used as a standard method for diagnosing Meniere's disease - it can be used to measure the SP/AP ratio, where an SP/AP ratio greater than 0.4-0.5 is indicative of Meniere-s Disease. In EVestG, an applied head tilt replaces the acoustic stimulus of ECOG. The EVestG output is also an SP/AP type plot, where SP is the summing potential, and AP is the action potential amplitude. AP is thought of as being proportional to the size of a population of afferents in an excitatory neural firing state. A simulation of the fluid volume displacement in the vestibular labyrinth in response to various types of head tilts (ipsilateral, backwards and horizontal rotation) was performed, and a simple neural model based on these simulations developed. The simple neural model shows that the change in firing rate of the utricle is much larger in magnitude than the change in firing rates of all three semi-circular canals following a head tilt (except in a horizontal rotation). The data suggests that the change in utricular firing rate is a minimum 2-3 orders of magnitude larger than changes in firing rates of the canals during ipsilateral/backward tilts. Based on these results, the neural response recorded by the electrode in our EVestG recordings is expected to be dominated by the utricle in ipsilateral/backward tilts (It is important to note that the effect of the saccule and efferent signals were not taken into account in this model). If the utricle response dominates the EVestG recordings as the modeling results suggest, then EVestG has the potential to diagnose utricular hair cell damage due to a viral infection (which has been cited as one possible cause of Meniere's Disease).
", keywords = "Diagnostic, endolymph hydrops, Meniere's disease, modeling.", volume = "4", number = "5", pages = "218-14", }
