[Galvanic vestibular stimulation in physiological and clinical studies in recent years]

Galvanic vestibular stimulation is a simple, harmless, noninvasive and low-cost research technique. In spite on a long history, it has been recently found popularity as a research tool. At present occurs of its revival as a research and diagnostic tool. Considerable effects of such stimulation for motor, visual, somatosensory, vestibular and cognitive/emotional function as well as for a range of neurological and psychiatric disorders have been reported. Obviously, any process that is able to extract an information due to head acceleration signals is a candidate on galvanic vestibular stimulation. In this review, we describe the basic physiological mechanisms of action of galvanic vestibular stimulation. We also consider a modern data of its influence on human, obtained in physiological and clinical studies.