Centre for Integrative Physiology, University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, Edinburgh, UK.
J Vestib Res. 2009;19(5-6):201-7. doi: 10.3233/VES-2009-0367.
Vestibular compensation after unilateral vestibular loss is a complex, multi-factored process involving synaptic and neuronal plasticity in many areas of the brain, and it is a challenge to identify the key sites of plasticity that determine the rate and extent of behavioural recovery. Experimental evidence strongly implicates the vestibular commissural inhibitory system which links the brainstem vestibular nuclei of the two sides, both in causing the initial severe oculomotor and postural symptoms of vestibular deafferentation, and in the subsequent recovery that takes place in the early stages of compensation. Of particular interest are changes in GABAergic neurotransmission within the commissural system, and the possibility that histaminergic drugs as well as stress steroids and neurosteroids that can modulate compensation, may do so at least in part by their effects on commissural inhibition. A fuller understanding of the role of the commissural system in compensation and the effects of GABAergic neuromodulators is likely to reveal the mechanisms of action of histamine in the vestibular system and the interactions between stress, anxiety and vestibular dysfunction.
单侧前庭丧失后的前庭补偿是一个复杂的、多因素的过程，涉及大脑许多区域的突触和神经元可塑性，确定决定行为恢复速度和程度的关键可塑性部位是一个挑战。实验证据强烈表明，前庭连合抑制系统连接了两侧的脑干前庭核，它不仅导致前庭去传入最初严重的眼球运动和姿势症状，而且在补偿的早期阶段也会发生随后的恢复。特别有趣的是连合系统内 GABA 能神经传递的变化，以及组胺能药物以及应激类固醇和神经甾体，可能至少部分通过它们对连合抑制的影响来调节补偿的可能性。更全面地了解连合系统在补偿中的作用以及 GABA 能神经调质的作用，可能会揭示组胺在前庭系统中的作用机制以及应激、焦虑和前庭功能障碍之间的相互作用。
