Vestibular Dysfunction

The vestibular system, located in the inner ear, provides information to the brain information about how head acceleration and orientation relative to gravity. Damage to the vestibular system is usually permanent and can contribute to a lower quality of life. The goal of this research is to to examine how vestibular implants (VI) may improve performance of cognitive tasks in patients with severe vestibular damage. These higher-level cognitive behaviors include (1) orientation relative to gravity, (2) navigation, and (3) neuropsychologic function. VI patients will be tested in these three cognitive domains across study sessions: pre-stimulation (VI implanted but stimulation OFF), following chronic stimulation (12 days, VI-ON), and then again 1 month later with the VI turned off. There will be both "true" stimulation experiments during which the VI will provide motion-modulated stimulation and also "placebo" stimulation (no motion cues, tonic stimulus). The order of these experiments will be randomized and separated by 3 months. Researchers will compare VI data in the three cognitive domains (spatial orientation, navigation, \& neuropsychologic function) with control data from non-implanted bilateral vestibular loss (BVL) and unilateral vestibular loss (UVL) patients and normal subjects.

This non-interventional study aims to assess the impact of vestibular impairments on the daily life activities of deaf children aged 0 to 2 years old. Three groups of participants will be included: deaf children with vestibular impairment, deaf children without vestibular impairment, and hearing children without vestibular dysfunction (control group). Children's daily activities will be evaluated through the OT Hope 0-5 years tool, a parent-administered questionnaire designed to measure competencies in different areas: personal care, play, and social interactions. This study also includes qualitative interviews with parents to further explore how vestibular impairments affect children's daily routines. It is hypothesized that: * Deaf children with vestibular impairments will show lower scores in daily life activities compared to the other two groups. * Deaf children without vestibular impairments will demonstrate scores closer to those of hearing children but may show some differences due to their hearing status. The research is conducted at the Robert Debré Hospital, in Paris, and aims to enroll 105 children over a three-year period. The data collected will provide insights into the specific needs of children with vestibular impairments and lay the groundwork for targeted early interventions.