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How does high-frequency sound or vibration activate vestibular receptors?

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Abstract

The mechanism by which vestibular neural phase locking occurs and how it relates to classical otolith mechanics is unclear. Here, we put forward the hypothesis that sound and vibration both cause fluid pressure waves in the inner ear and that it is these pressure waves which displace the hair bundles on vestibular receptor hair cells and result in activation of type I receptor hair cells and phase locking of the action potentials in the irregular vestibular afferents, which synapse on type I receptors. This idea has been suggested since the early neural recordings and recent results give it greater credibility.

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Abbreviations

ACS:

Air-conducted sound

BCV:

Bone-conducted vibration

EMG:

Electromyogram

Fz:

The location on the forehead in the midline at the hairline

Fz BCV:

Bone-conducted vibration delivered to Fz

HCB:

Hair cell bundle

cVEMP:

Cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential

oVEMP:

Ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potential

n10:

The initial negative potential of the oVEMP response at a latency of around 10 ms

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the support of NH&MRC of Australia (Grants 632746, 1046826) and the Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation. We thank Ann Burgess for her excellent help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vestibular Research Laboratory, School of Psychology A 18, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    I. S. Curthoys

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    J. W. Grant

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  1. I. S. Curthoys
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  2. J. W. Grant
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Correspondence to I. S. Curthoys.

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Curthoys, I.S., Grant, J.W. How does high-frequency sound or vibration activate vestibular receptors?. Exp Brain Res 233, 691–699 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-4192-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-4192-6

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