Methods of vestibular function evaluation in animals
LI Ya
QIAO Yuehua
YANG Shiming
Abstract：Vestibular nervous system dysfunction can cause spatial orientation and balance disorders in both people and animals. The vestibule is an important part of the inner ear, with the same origin as but earlier development than the co-chlea, essentially matured at birth in mammals [1-3]. With a variety of animal models of vestibular dysfunction being devel-oped (pica rat model of motion sickness, vomiting mink model, etc.), understanding of the structure and function of the ves-tibular system has been continuously deepened. A systematic vestibular function evaluation system is not only important in basic research in animal models, but also helpful in diagnosis and treatment of vestibular diseases in the clinic. A number of vestibular evaluation methods exist, including caloric test to evaluate semicircular canal functions, cVEMP to evaluate saccu-lar function and oVEMP to evaluate utricular function. Studies in human subjects are limited by ethical constrains, and ani-mal studies are needed to advance understanding of vestibular structures and function and to improve diagnosis and treat-ment of vestibular disorders [4]. Experimental animals, however, are unable to cooperate during vestibular function examina-tion, the approach, therefore, must be different in animals than in people. This review focuses on several approaches for ves-tibular examination in animals.
Keywords：experimental animalsvestibular function testvestibular dysfunction
Publication Date：2016-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：4( 819-822 )