Welcome to the Laboratory of Vestibular Neurophysiology of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The mission of our lab is to advance the understanding of a complex and vital function of everyday life: how the body perceives head motion and maintains balance.

Our work seeks to define the physiology of the vestibular system, which informs the brain about the body's motion and orientation. The vestibular part of the inner ear contains receptors that gather information about the movement of the head. The brain combines this information with signals from the eye and from the sense of touch to assemble a perception of how the body is moving through space. The body responds to this perceived movement with reflexes that maintain balance. For instance, turning your head leads to reflex eye movements that enable you to keep looking steadily ahead. Tilting your head to one side (as might happen when you begin to fall) causes reflexes leg muscle contractions that keep you standing.

Although much is known about the vestibular part of the inner ear, key aspects of how the vestibular receptors perceive, process and report essential information are still mysterious. Increasing our understanding of this process will have tremendous impact on quality of life of patients with vestibular disorders, who often suffer terrible discomfort from dizziness and vertigo.

Our laboratory group's basic science research focuses on the vestibulo-ocular reflexes - the reflexes that move the eyes in response to motions of the head. We do this by studying the vestibular sensors and nerve cells that provide input to the reflexes; by studying eye movements in humans and animals with different vestibular disorders, by studying effects of electrical stimulation of vestibular sensors, and by using mathematical models to describe these reflexes, . We're particularly interested in abnormalities of the brain's inability to compensate for vestibular disorders.

Our group includes many clinicians who provide direct patient care, including neuro-otologic surgeons, neurologists, and rehabilitation therapists. Because a central goal of our work is translating scientific discovery into advances in the diagnosis and treatment of our patients, the questions driving our laboratory research often stem from interactions with patients in the clinic. For example, our work has led us to develop a new and effective surgery for the balance disorder called superior canal dehiscence syndrome and has helped optimize treatment for the disabling condition known as Ménière's disease.

Lloyd B. Minor, M.D.
Andelot Professor and Director