Modulatory effects of magnetic vestibular stimulation on resting-state networks can be explained by subject-specific orientation of inner-ear anatomy in the MR static magnetic field.

Strong static magnetic fields, as used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), stimulate the vestibular inner ear leading to a state of imbalance within the vestibular system that causes nystagmus. This magnetic vestibular stimulation (MVS) also modulates fluctuations of resting-state functional MRI (RS-fMRI) networks. MVS can be explained by a Lorentz force model, indicating that MVS is the result of the interaction of the static magnetic field strength and direction (called "B0 magnetic field" in MRI) with the inner ear's continuous endolymphatic ionic current. However, the high variability between subjects receiving MVS (measured as nystagmus slow-phase velocity and RS-fMRI amplitude modulations) despite matching head position, remains to be explained. Furthermore, within the imaging community, an "easy-to-acquire-and-use" proxy accounting for modulatory MVS effects in RS-fMRI fluctuations is needed. The present study uses MRI data of 60 healthy volunteers to examine the relationship between RS-fMRI fluctuations and the individual orientation of inner-ear anatomy within the static magnetic field of the MRI. The individual inner-ear anatomy and orientation were assessed via high-resolution anatomical CISS images and related to fluctuations of RS-fMRI networks previously associated with MVS. More specifically, we used a subject-specific proxy for MVS (pMVS) that corresponds to the orientation of the individual inner-ear anatomy within the static magnetic field direction (also called "z-direction" in MR imaging). We found that pMVS explained a considerable fraction of the total variance in RS-fMRI fluctuations (for instance, from 11% in the right cerebellum up to 36% in the cerebellar vermis). In addition to pMVS, we examined the angle of Reid's plane, as determined from anatomical imaging as an alternative and found that this angle (with the same sinus transformation as for pMVS) explained considerably less variance, e.g., from 2 to 16%. In our opinion, an excess variability due to MVS should generally be addressed in fMRI research analogous to nuisance regression for movement, pulsation, and respiration effects. We suggest using the pMVS parameter to deal with modulations of RS-fMRI fluctuations due to MVS. MVS-induced variance can easily be accounted by using high-resolution anatomical imaging of the inner ear and including the proposed pMVS parameter in fMRI group-level analysis.

Beyond binary parcellation of the vestibular cortex - A dataset.

The data-set presented in this data article is supplementary to the original publication, doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.05.018 (Kirsch et al., 2018). Named article describes handedness-dependent organizational patterns of functional subunits within the human vestibular cortical network that were revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) connectivity parcellation. 60 healthy volunteers (30 left-handed and 30 right-handed) were examined on a 3T MR scanner using resting state fMRI. The multisensory (non-binary) nature of the human (vestibular) cortex was addressed by using masked binary and non-binary variations of independent component analysis (ICA). The data have been made publicly available via github (https://github.com/RainerBoegle/BeyondBinaryParcellationData).

Handedness-dependent functional organizational patterns within the bilateral vestibular cortical network revealed by fMRI connectivity based parcellation.

Current evidence points towards a vestibular cortex that involves a multisensory bilateral temporo-parietal-insular network with a handedness-dependent hemispheric lateralization. This study aimed to identify handedness-dependent organizational patterns of (lateralized and non-lateralized) functional subunits within the human vestibular cortex areas. 60 healthy volunteers (30 left-handed and 30 right-handed) were examined on a 3T MR scanner using resting state functional MRI (fMRI). The data was analyzed in four major steps using a functional connectivity based parcellation (fCBP) approach: (1) independent component analysis (ICA) on a whole brain level to identify different resting state networks (RSN); (2) creation of a vestibular informed mask from four whole brain ICs that included reference coordinates of the vestibular network extracted from meta-analyses of vestibular neuroimaging experiments; (3) Re-ICA confined to the vestibular informed mask; (4) cross-correlation of the activated voxels within the vestibular subunits (parcels) to each other (P-to-P) and to the whole-brain RSN (P-to-RSN). This approach disclosed handedness-dependency, inter-hemispheric symmetry, the scale of connectedness to major whole brain RSN and the grade of spatial overlap of voxels within parcels (common/unique) as meaningful discriminatory organizational categories within the vestibular cortex areas. This network consists of multiple inter-hemisphere symmetric (not lateralized), well-connected (many RSN-assignments) multisensory areas (or hubs; e.g., superior temporal gyrus, temporo-parietal intersection) organized around an asymmetric (lateralized, "dominant") and functionally more specialized (few RSN-assignments) core region in the parieto-insular cortex. The latter is in the middle, posterior and inferior insula. In conclusion, the bilateral cortical vestibular network contains not only a handedness-dependent lateralized central region concentrated in the right hemisphere in right-handers and left hemisphere in left-handers, but also surrounding inter-hemisphere symmetric multisensory vestibular areas that seem to be functionally influenced by their neighboring sensory systems (e.g., temporo-parietal intersection by the visual system). One may speculate that the development of an asymmetrical organized vestibular subsystem reflects a more recent phylogenetic evolution of various multisensory vestibular functions. The right hemispheric dominance of spatial orientation and its disorders, spatial neglect and pusher syndrome, may serve as examples.

The cortical spatiotemporal correlate of otolith stimulation: Vestibular evoked potentials by body translations.

The vestibular organ senses linear and rotational acceleration of the head during active and passive motion. These signals are necessary for bipedal locomotion, navigation, the coordination of eye and head movements in 3D space. The temporal dynamics of vestibular processing in cortical structures have hardly been studied in humans, let alone with natural stimulation. The aim was to investigate the cortical vestibular network related to natural otolith stimulation using a hexapod motion platform. We conducted two experiments, 1. to estimate the sources of the vestibular evoked potentials (VestEPs) by means of distributed source localization (n=49), and 2. to reveal modulations of the VestEPs through the underlying acceleration intensity (n=24). For both experiments subjects were accelerated along the main axis (left/right, up/down, fore/aft) while the EEG was recorded. We were able to identify five VestEPs (P1, N1, P2, N2, P3) with latencies between 38 and 461 ms as well as an evoked beta-band response peaking with a latency of 68 ms in all subjects and for all acceleration directions. Source localization gave the cingulate sulcus visual (CSv) area and the opercular-insular region as the main origin of the evoked potentials. No lateralization effects due to handedness could be observed. In the second experiment, area CSv was shown to be integral in the processing of acceleration intensities as sensed by the otolith organs, hinting at its potential role in ego-motion detection. These robust VestEPs could be used to investigate the mechanisms of inter-regional interaction in the natural context of vestibular processing and multisensory integration.

On the impact of examiners on latencies and amplitudes in cervical and ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials evaluated over a large sample (N = 1,038).

Vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) are frequently used in the clinical diagnosis and research of vertigo syndromes. Altered latencies or amplitudes are typically interpreted as an indication of disturbance in the processing of vestibular stimuli along the otolithic pathways. Correct interpretation, however, can be difficult as VEMP amplitudes can vary greatly across subjects and across laboratories, likely because they are very sensitive to measurement conditions. Here, we attempted to quantify the impact of examiner differences on VEMP data. We collected data from 1,038 people using eight different experimental examiners, and investigated the effect of examiner on VEMP latencies and amplitudes. We found that the examiner collecting the data had a strong effect on outcome measures with significant differences (p < 0.001) in cVEMP and oVEMP latencies and in oVEMP amplitudes. No significant differences between examiners were found for the cVEMP amplitudes. When we compared the healthy and pathological sides of patients with a clinically diagnosed unilateral disease, no significant differences between sides were found. Given our results and the results reported in the literature, we conclude that the signal features of VEMPs are very sensitive to variables that may be influenced by the examiner. The field should therefore work on a better standard for VEMP recordings.

Appraisal of the signal-to-noise-ratio of uni- and bipolar recordings of ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials.

Ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (oVEMPs) are a non-invasive method to investigate otolith function mediated via the superior vestibular nerve. However, the herein used recordings and protocols may alter within different studies. In particular the diverging use of electrode configuration regarding polarity or even electrode position varies across studies. Therefore, a systematic analysis and appraisal of the different electrode configuration seems mandatory. In this study we compared the quality of uni- and bipolar recordings based on the signal to noise ratio (SNR). We recoded oVEMPs using a uni- and bipolar electrode configuration simultaneously and compared the recorded amplitudes and latencies and calculated the SNR. The amplitudes recorded by the unipolar configurations were significantly (p < 0.01) increased compared to the bipolar configuration. However, the SNR of the bipolar setup was significantly better (p < 0.05) when compared to the unipolar setup. Additionally, we estimated a transfer function that enabled a comparison of uni- and bipolar recordings. To conclude, the variety of setups used for oVEMP recording hinder a comparison of results and unipolar electrode configurations have clear disadvantages.