Role of the Visceral Brain as Related to Body Equilibrium
1982 Volume 75 Issue 9special Pages 1925-1942
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1982 Volume 75 Issue 9special Pages 1925-1942
The author devised a new type of examination for the detection of olfactory vertigo. A subject is required to inhale the vapor of a liquid-form of garlic. The resulting changes in the eye and body equilibrium functions are then examined using various equilibrium tests. This examination was termed “Equilibrium test for olfactory vertigo’. Ten normal subjects and 35 with cranio-cervical injury were the subjects examined herein.
The results obtained were as follows:
1) In normal subjects, neither vertigo nor ataxia was induced when the above equilibrium test was carried out.
2) In traumatized patients, an increase in the degrees of vertigo and ataxia was observed when the same equilibrium test was carried out.
The following results were noted:
1) The equilibrium test was positive in patients who complained of hyperosmia.
2) Patients giving a positive sign in the equilibrium test had hypersensitivity to adrenaline and an increase in ataxia when this drug was administered. Furthermore, the ataxia induced by garlic tended to be similar to that induced by adrenaline.
3) A positive sign of the equilibrium test was more marked in patients with cerebellar ataxia than in those without this ataxia. Among the former patients, the development of olfaction-related ataxia became increasingly evident when the cerebellar dysfunction advanced.
4) Cloxazolam, a minor tranquilizer of the Benzodiazepine group, produced beneficial effects on the vertigo due to olfaction, except in patients with both olfactory vertigo and cerebellar ataxia.
5) Similarity was found between the neural elements related to the development of both types of vertigo, i. e. olfactory and psychosomatic, although the former type of vertigo was not always accompanied by the latter.
6) Patients who showed increased disequilibrium in the equilibrium test for olfactory vertigo using Alinamin (liquid-form of garlic) tended to develop reduced disequilibrium when examined by the same test using a musk-like substance.
This tendency was significantly evident in patients giving a positive result in the adrenaline test (Hinoki 1971).
