Vestibular impairments have been traditionally approached from the perspective of the two classic expressions of the vestibular system. Namely, vestibulo-ocular and vestibulo-spinal reflexes, explaining the symptoms of imbalance, dizziness, vertigo, oscillopsia, and gaze instability. However vestibular dysfunction has a significantly broader cognitive, emotional, psychiatric, and psychological impact, which is usually disassociated from the vestibular origin.
There is a historic relationship between the vestibular system, psychiatry, and psychology. From the initial research on vestibular receptors by Josef Breuer together with his pupil Sigmund Freud, continuing with Robert Barany – a student of Freud – and through William James.
In clinical neuro-otology, the psychological and psychiatric symptoms are mostly ignored or taken as an indirect consequence of the vestibular impairment, while in the psychological and psychiatric field the possible etiology of a vestibular deficit as a root cause of the symptoms is generally overlooked.
Despite a long-time understanding that vestibular dysfunction has high comorbidity with psychological and psychiatric disorders, within the oto-neurologist field, psychological and psychiatric symptoms are less integrated into the holistic approach to vestibular impairments. On the other hand, vestibular dysfunction is hardly considered in the psychological and psychiatric fields. Our goal is to contribute to closing this gap by expanding the horizon of vestibular-related comorbidities, by taking vestibular dysfunction as a specific neurobiological factor, and by building upon associated symptoms. Multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches where the vestibular patient is seen from diverse medical backgrounds, can bring new assessment and functional tools and develop novel technologies and techniques into vestibular rehabilitation.
In this Research Topic, we aim at a small step on the path to the re-integration of neuro-otology with psychology and psychiatry to get a better understanding of the far-reaching impact of vestibular dysfunction and impairments, together with novel diagnostic, functional, and performance testing along with novel interventions.
We welcome the submission of original articles, reviews, opinions, case reports, and perspectives regarding all kinds of vestibular impairments including but not limited to the following topics:
- Cognition including reasoning, spatial orientation, mentalizing (alexithymia, theory of mind, perspective taking, empathy, reflective function, meta-cognition, and others)
- Own body and outside world perception including dissociative symptoms such as Depersonalization/Derealization, out-of-body experience
- Anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders
- Novel testing techniques for the association between vestibular disorders and other conditions.
- Novel therapeutic approaches including multidisciplinary approaches, novel technologies such as virtual reality, and transdisciplinary interventions.
Vestibular impairments have been traditionally approached from the perspective of the two classic expressions of the vestibular system. Namely, vestibulo-ocular and vestibulo-spinal reflexes, explaining the symptoms of imbalance, dizziness, vertigo, oscillopsia, and gaze instability. However vestibular dysfunction has a significantly broader cognitive, emotional, psychiatric, and psychological impact, which is usually disassociated from the vestibular origin.
There is a historic relationship between the vestibular system, psychiatry, and psychology. From the initial research on vestibular receptors by Josef Breuer together with his pupil Sigmund Freud, continuing with Robert Barany – a student of Freud – and through William James.
In clinical neuro-otology, the psychological and psychiatric symptoms are mostly ignored or taken as an indirect consequence of the vestibular impairment, while in the psychological and psychiatric field the possible etiology of a vestibular deficit as a root cause of the symptoms is generally overlooked.
Despite a long-time understanding that vestibular dysfunction has high comorbidity with psychological and psychiatric disorders, within the oto-neurologist field, psychological and psychiatric symptoms are less integrated into the holistic approach to vestibular impairments. On the other hand, vestibular dysfunction is hardly considered in the psychological and psychiatric fields. Our goal is to contribute to closing this gap by expanding the horizon of vestibular-related comorbidities, by taking vestibular dysfunction as a specific neurobiological factor, and by building upon associated symptoms. Multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches where the vestibular patient is seen from diverse medical backgrounds, can bring new assessment and functional tools and develop novel technologies and techniques into vestibular rehabilitation.
In this Research Topic, we aim at a small step on the path to the re-integration of neuro-otology with psychology and psychiatry to get a better understanding of the far-reaching impact of vestibular dysfunction and impairments, together with novel diagnostic, functional, and performance testing along with novel interventions.
We welcome the submission of original articles, reviews, opinions, case reports, and perspectives regarding all kinds of vestibular impairments including but not limited to the following topics:
- Cognition including reasoning, spatial orientation, mentalizing (alexithymia, theory of mind, perspective taking, empathy, reflective function, meta-cognition, and others)
- Own body and outside world perception including dissociative symptoms such as Depersonalization/Derealization, out-of-body experience
- Anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders
- Novel testing techniques for the association between vestibular disorders and other conditions.
- Novel therapeutic approaches including multidisciplinary approaches, novel technologies such as virtual reality, and transdisciplinary interventions.