Dr. Antonella Palla

 

Main Goals, Keywords

To study central vestibular diseases affecting motion perception, spatial orientation and navigation in humans and to assess potential treatments.

Keywords: neurology, neuro-otology, spatial orientation, vestibular pathways, self-motion perception, humans, cortex

Group Members

1 group leader, 2 doctoral students

Previous and Current Research

The long-term goal of this research is to better understand diseases affecting motion perception, spatial orientation and navigation in humans and to assess potential treatments. The focus of interest is on how vestibular signals are processed and represented at cortical level. While our previous work has concentrated on ocular motor responses upon various types of vestibular stimulations, we now aim to elucidate the central mechanisms of vestibular self-motion encoding in patients with neurological disorders that asymmetrically affect neural structures of the central vestibular system (e.g. strokes).

Future Projects

We plan to use repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to modify the activity of vestibular cortical areas in order to better understand the properties and functions of these specific areas.

Techniques and Equipment

This research uses techniques for vestibular (motion simulator, multi-axis turntable), eye movement recordings (dual search coil technique, 3D video-oculography), and psychophysical instruments (tachometer wheel for subjective velocity perception, somatosensory bar for translational and tilt relative to gravity perception).

Selected Publications

• Poretti A, Palla A, Tarnutzer AA, Petersen JA, Weber KP, Straumann D, Jung HH. Vestibular impairment in patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Neurology. 2013 May 8. [Epub ahead of print]
• Shaikh AG, Palla A, Marti S, Olasagasti I, Optican LM, Zee DS, Straumann D.Role of cerebellum in motion perception and vestibulo-ocular reflex-similarities and disparities. Cerebellum. 2013 Feb;12(1):97-107. doi: 10.1007/s12311-012-0401-7.
• Bertolini G, Ramat S, Bockisch CJ, Marti S, Straumann D, Palla A. Is vestibular self-motion perception controlled by the velocity storage? Insights from patients with chronic degeneration of the vestibulo-cerebellum. PLoS One. 2012;7(6):e36763. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036763. Epub 2012 Jun 15.
• Tarnutzer AA, Palla A, Marti S, Schuknecht B, Straumann D. Hypertrophy of the inferior olivary nucleus impacts perception of gravity. Front Neurol. 2012;3:79. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2012.00079. Epub 2012 May 11.

Funding

Swiss National Science Foundation; Betty and David Koetser Foundation for Brain Research, Baasch-Medicus Stiftung