{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,28]],"date-time":"2026-10-28T18:10:27Z","timestamp":1793211027916,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,21]],"date-time":"2022-02-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1645401600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>An ongoing EU Horizon 2020 Project called BionicVEST is investigating the effect of constant electrical stimulation (ES) of the inferior vestibular nerve in patients with bilateral vestibular dysfunction (BVD). The evidence is that constant ES results in improved postural stability and gait performance, and so the question of central importance concerns how constant ES of mainly saccular afferents in these BVD patients could cause this improved performance. We suggest that the constant ES substitutes for the absent saccular neural input to the vestibular nuclei and the cerebellum in these BVD patients and indirectly via these structures to other structures, which have been of great recent interest in motor control. One target area, the anterior midline cerebellum (the uvula), has recently been targeted as a location for deep-brain stimulation in human patients to improve postural stability and gait. There are projections from midline cerebellum to basal ganglia, including the striatum, which are structures involved in the initiation of gait. It may be that the effect of this activation of peripheral saccular afferent neurons is analogous to the effect of deep-brain stimulation (DBS) by electrodes in basal ganglia acting to help alleviate the symptoms of patients with Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm11041132","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,21]],"date-time":"2022-02-21T20:47:45Z","timestamp":1645476465000},"page":"1132","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Why Should Constant Stimulation of Saccular Afferents Modify the Posture and Gait of Patients with Bilateral Vestibular Dysfunction? The Saccular Substitution Hypothesis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9416-5038","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ian S.","family":"Curthoys","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Vestibular Research Laboratory, School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Paul F.","family":"Smith","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand"},{"name":"The Brain Health Research Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Angel Ramos","family":"de Miguel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Otolaryngology, and Head and Neck Surgery, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario Insular Materno Infantil de Gran Canaria, 35016 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"79","DOI":"10.1159\/000503600","article-title":"Chronic electrical stimulation of the otolith organ: Preliminary results in humans with bilateral vestibulopathy and sensorineural hearing loss","volume":"25","author":"Montesdeoca","year":"2020","journal-title":"Audiol. 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