Inter-day and intra-day variations in effective intensity of noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation to improve postural stability in bilateral vestibulopathy.

BACKGROUND: The reproducibility of the effective intensity of noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation (nGVS) to improve postural stability is not well known.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate inter-day and intra-day variations in effective intensity in patients with bilateral vestibulopathy (BVP).

METHODS: Thirteen BVP patients were measured for center-of-pressure movements in the standing posture at five time points: morning of the first test day, morning and evening of the second test day, and morning and evening of the third test day. The mean velocity, the envelopment area, and the root mean square were measured in the eyes-closed condition for 30 s during nGVS application ranging from 0 to 1000μA. The effective intensity was defined as the intensity at which all the three parameters measured during the stimulation were simultaneously smaller than the values at baseline (0μA).

RESULTS: Seven of the 13 patients had a common effective intensity throughout the three test days. Six patients on the second test day and five patients on the third test day had no common effective intensity between morning and evening.

CONCLUSIONS: The effective intensity of nGVS changes depending on the time during the day as well as between the days.