van Boxel Stan C J, Vermorken Bernd L, Volpe Benjamin, Guinand Nils, Perez-Fornos Angelica, Devocht Elke M J, van de Berg Raymond
IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2025;33:2449-2455. doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2025.3579417.
Vestibular implants targeting the semi-circular canals might offer a potential treatment approach for vestibulopathy patients. Electrical stimulation is provided to all three canals to restore gaze stabilization in all three planes of space. This study evaluated the effect of electrically stimulating multiple canals at the same time. It was hypothesized that eye responses of single-canal stimulation could predict eye responses of multi-canal stimulation, using vector summation. This might provide valuable information for future vestibular implant fitting strategies.
Nine subjects with an investigational vestibulo-cochlear implant participated in an experiment evaluating the vestibulo-ocular reflex in response to single and multi-canal electrical stimulations. Single-canal responses were combined by vector summation to predict the multi-canal response. The prediction was compared with measured multi-canal responses. The responses were evaluated based on peak eye velocity and alignment.
Eye responses to multi-canal vestibular stimulation did not consistently correspond to the sum of single-canal responses. Subsets of predictions appeared within the expected range of variation, while other subsets demonstrated over- or underestimation.
Eye responses to combined multi-canal stimulation cannot be accurately predicted by summation of single-canal responses. These findings suggest that vestibular implant fitting should not rely exclusively on single-canal measurements. Instead, advanced fitting strategies that account for multi-canal interactions are likely necessary to optimize outcomes.
针对半规管的前庭植入物可能为前庭病变患者提供一种潜在的治疗方法。通过对所有三个半规管进行电刺激，以恢复在空间所有三个平面上的注视稳定。本研究评估了同时对多个半规管进行电刺激的效果。研究假设是，利用矢量求和，单半规管刺激的眼动反应可以预测多半规管刺激的眼动反应。这可能为未来的前庭植入物适配策略提供有价值的信息。
九名佩戴试验性人工耳蜗植入物的受试者参与了一项实验，该实验评估了对单半规管和多半规管电刺激的前庭眼反射。通过矢量求和将单半规管反应进行合并，以预测多半规管反应。将预测结果与测量得到的多半规管反应进行比较。基于峰值眼速度和对齐情况对反应进行评估。
多半规管前庭刺激的眼动反应并不总是与单半规管反应的总和一致。预测的子集出现在预期的变化范围内，而其他子集则表现出高估或低估。
单半规管反应的总和无法准确预测多半规管联合刺激的眼动反应。这些发现表明，前庭植入物的适配不应仅依赖于单半规管测量。相反，可能需要考虑多半规管相互作用的先进适配策略来优化治疗效果。
