A PILOT INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF VESTIBULOMETRIC MEASURES IN PREDICTING NEURAL PATHWAYS IN RELATION TO VIBROTACTILE STIMULATION

Research in the use of vibrotactile devices has focused predominantly on the vibrotactile receptor system within the skin. There is little r esearch relating to the neural pathways and the central processing of information transmitted to the cortex as a result of vibrotactile stim ulation. This pilot study that considers the use of vestibulometric me asures in predicting the neural pathways. Three measures of vestibular function were undertaken: saccadic eye movement, smooth pursuit and o ptokinetic nystagmus. Ten normally hearing adults, with no previous hi story of vestibular dysfunction, were tested using an ICS computer bas ed vestibular testing system. All subjects were tested in four situati ons: baseline, wearing vibrotactile device with stimulation, vibrotact ile device without stimulation and repeated baseline; Five subjects de monstrated a significant change in vestibular measures, four related t o measure of optokinetic nystagmus and two in relation to smooth pursu it. There is a demonstrated difference in vestibular function which su pports the need for further investigation.