Abstract

Neuropsychiatric disorders involve brain areas of self-awareness, affect voluntary attention to stimuli, and show cognitive processes’ dysfunctions. Functional images demonstrated that the stimulation of the inner ear’s vestibular receptors enhances the activity of the insular cortex, prefrontal cortex, hypothalamus and hippocampus, improving self-perception, attention, reasoning, and memory. Vestibular stimulation techniques (e.g., caloric, galvanic, and rotary) modulates those neuronal centers at the right or the left hemisphere depending on the kind of the stimuli and the side of stimulation, being a potentially useful therapeutic tool for mental disorders. Neuropsychiatric conditions are currently the leading cause of global disability. The present article reviews vestibular stimulation techniques in neuropsychiatry and discusses future directions.

Highlights

  • Every moment in our life, we have a feeling about who we are

  • Self-awareness is relatively stable along the time, in mental disorders, the healthy own-perception “turns off” leading to distortions in self-perception like occurs in depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia [1]

  • Several studies in healthy subjects showed that the stimulation of the vestibular system produced an enhancement of the activity of the insular cortex, Annal Behav Neurosci, 3(1): 245-251 (2020)

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Summary

Introduction

Every moment in our life, we have a feeling about who we are. Self-awareness is relatively stable along the time, in mental disorders, the healthy own-perception “turns off” leading to distortions in self-perception like occurs in depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia [1].Despite the inner ear’s vestibular system has an important role on the control of movements and the maintenance of the body balance, current evidence is showing the relevance of vestibular system on self body/mind awareness and cognition. Several studies in healthy subjects showed that the stimulation of the vestibular system produced an enhancement of the activity of the insular cortex, Annal Behav Neurosci, 3(1): 245-251 (2020) This article reviews the vestibular stimulation techniques and their effects on neuropsychiatric disorders.

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Conclusion

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