Pan W, Soma R, Kwak S, Yamamoto Y
Dept. of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, 113-8655 Tokyo, Japan.
J Neurol. 2008 Nov;255(11):1657-61. doi: 10.1007/s00415-008-0950-3. Epub 2008 Jul 18.
Through the cerebellar vermis, the vestibular nerves are known to influence the basal ganglia and the limbic system. By means of noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS), it may be possible to ameliorate movement disorders, particularly akinesic symptoms, in patients with central neurodegenerative disorders. We evaluated the effect of 24-hour noisy GVS on a power-law temporal autocorrelation exponent of daytime wrist activity, separately for higher (local maxima) and lower (local minima) levels of activity, in 14 hospitalized patients. The power-law exponent for the local maxima was significantly (p < 0.002) lower with the noisy GVS than with sham stimulation, suggestive of more frequent switching behavior from low to high levels of activity or less severe akinesia. The noisy GVS may thus potentially improve certain motor dysfunctions in patients with distinct central neurodegenerative diseases.
已知前庭神经通过小脑蚓部影响基底神经节和边缘系统。通过嘈杂的电前庭刺激（GVS），有可能改善中枢神经退行性疾病患者的运动障碍，尤其是运动不能症状。我们评估了24小时嘈杂GVS对14名住院患者白天手腕活动的幂律时间自相关指数的影响，分别针对较高（局部最大值）和较低（局部最小值）活动水平。与假刺激相比，嘈杂GVS下局部最大值的幂律指数显著降低（p < 0.002），这表明从低活动水平到高活动水平的转换行为更频繁，或运动不能症状较轻。因此，嘈杂GVS可能潜在地改善特定中枢神经退行性疾病患者的某些运动功能障碍。
