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Development and Pathophysiology of Central Vestibular System. Kenna D. Peusner, PhD Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology George Washington University Medical Center Ross Hall, 208, 209, 211, 213, & 215 994-3489, anakdp@gwumc.edu. Funding from NIH
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Development and Pathophysiology of Central Vestibular System Kenna D. Peusner, PhD Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology George Washington University Medical Center Ross Hall, 208, 209, 211, 213, & 215 994-3489, anakdp@gwumc.edu Funding from NIH “ Synaptic Transmission during Neuronal Differentiation” (R01 DC00970) “Development of Vestibular Nuclei Neurons” (R01 DC05004)
Vestibular system disorders • The vestibular system controls posture and balance. • Dizziness is a common symptom reported by patients. In 55% of patients with dizziness symptoms, the cause is due to vestibular pathology. • In pediatric patients, vestibular symptoms are uncommon as a chief complaint because children (18 months to three years) rely more heavily on vision than on vestibular and proprioceptive senses. • However, 50-95% of children with congenital and acquired hearing impairment have vestibular abnormalities. Developmental delays due to vestibular disorders include impaired learning, postural coordination, and motor skills. • Balance disorders become very common with increasing age. About 35% of people over 75 years suffer from balance problems. • Patients with unilateral peripheral vestibular lesions (acoustic neuroma) undergo recovery of function in about one week, called vestibular compensation.
40 0 Vm (mV) -40 -80 100 ms Technical Approaches used in the laboratory During vestibular compensation, spontaneous spike firing is lost in vestibular nucleus neurons in the brain. About a week later, recovery of spike firing occurs, coincident with behavioral recovery. Spontaneous and evoked spike activity Spontaneous synaptic activity +10 mV Inhibitory events Immunolabeling of protein targets and confocal imaging of neurons -60 mV Excitatory events
Scientists presently working in the laboratory Kenna D. Peusner, PhD : PI Anastas Popratiloff, MD, PhD: Immunocytochemistry and confocal imaging Mei Shao, MD, PhD: Patch-clamp electrophysiology on brain slices John Ramcharitar, PhD: Patch-clamp electrophysiology on brain slices Adria Gottesman-Davis: Third year graduate student in IBS Xudong Cai: Research Assistant June Hirsch, PhD: Consultant in electrophysiology, Paris, France