Clinical Applications of Basic Vestibular Research

Abstract

For progress in the diagnosis and treatment of vestibular diseases and disorders, clinicians depend on progress in scientific ideas, methods, and techniques. In reverse, scientists can, without being forced into “mission-orientated” research, pick up useful new ideas by exposure to the experiments of nature found in the Dizzy Clinic. Although some of the clinical advances that we have described here, such as in caloric testing and in vestibular compensation, link directly to vestibular science, others such as the high-resolution {CT} required to diagnose superior semicircular canal dehiscence and the genetics of migraine vestibulopathy depend on a broader science and technology. For continued progress, not only do vestibular scientists need to talk to and work with vestibular clinicians but they also need to be familiar with the impact that advances in fields such as genetics and imaging could be making in vestibular research.