Progress in understanding the pathogenic models of PPPD will benefit from a two-pronged approach: in humans – in whom we can analyze self-questionnaires on bodily and emotional feelings in great detail, and in an animal model – which is the only model that allows us to invasively study the causal links between disruption of vestibulocortical networks and emotional disorders.
Although the two experimental approaches in humans and animals shed complementary light on the pathogenic models of PPPD at different scales of analysis, they must be operationally separated into two “Work Packages”:
Project 1: Disturbances of the sense of self and body in otoneurological disorders and pathogenic models of PPPD
Project manager: Christophe LOPEZ – CNRS Research Director, Doctor of Neuroscience, Habilité à Diriger des Recherches :
The aims of this three-year project are to improve pathophysiological models of PPPD by combining cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches in otoneurological patients suffering from vertigo and chronic instability, behavioral measures of the sense of agentivity and measures of cerebral processing of vestibular information using electroencephalography.
Project 2: Investigating a causal link between chronic vertigo and the conditioning of altered psychiatric states in a mouse model of PPPD].
Project manager: Christian CHABBERT – CNRS Research Director, PhD, Habilité à Diriger des Recherches :
The main aim of the project is to provide direct evidence that repetitive vertigo can condition persistent states of anxiety and depression, and on this basis to propose an animal model for the study of PPPD, in order to test pharmacological and rehabilitative approaches that can then be transposed to the human clinic.