Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Velocity storage mechanism is a multisensory rotation estimator; it compensates for errors in the information provided by the peripheral vestibular organs by means of an adjustment in the duration of the vestibular signal. The aim of this study was to determine the activity of the velocity storage mechanism in the presence of a labyrinthine disorder, using galvanic vestibular stimulation to cause direct activation of the vestibular afferent neurons.

MATERIALS and METHODS: Forty-one subjects with definite Meniere’s disease (MD) and 36 healthy volunteers were evaluated using a 20-s galvanic vestibular stimulation.

RESULTS: We found a post-stimulus nystagmus overshoot exclusively in subjects with MD (47% in subjects with unilateral disease and 82% in subjects with bilateral disease), but no overshoot in healthy subjects.

CONCLUSION: Because post-stimulus nystagmus overshoot is caused by the velocity storage mechanism, this finding suggests an increase in the velocity storage in subjects with a labyrinthine disease.