Children’s Health: Inner-ear dysfunction may cause behavioral abnormalities

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   Inner-ear dysfunction may cause behavioral abnormalities

The researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York through study in mice identified the link between the brain and the inner ear.

The findings indicate that inner ear defects can directly cause neurological changes that increase hyperactivity.

The study offers clue on a long-term mystery of many children and adolescents with severe inner-ear disorders (particularly in hearing and balance) who have behavioral problems, such as hyperactivity.

“Our study provides the first evidence that a sensory impairment, such as inner-ear dysfunction, can induce specific molecular changes in the brain that cause maladaptive behaviors traditionally considered to originate exclusively in the brain,” said study leader Jean M. Hébert of the Department of Neuroscience and Genetics at Einstein.

Further analysis in mice also unraveled that the mice with inner ear disorders and which displayed the hyperactive behavior had a genetic mutation, specially relating to the Slc12a2 gene.

While the gene also exists in human, the experts suggest that the discovered connection can be applicable in people, as well.

Inner-ear problems cause abnormal functioning of the striatum, a central brain area that controls movement.

Wider observation unveils the increased levels of two proteins of pERK and pCREB involved in a signaling pathway that controls the action of neurotransmitters.

Study shows that increases in levels of the two proteins occurred only in the striatum and not in other forebrain areas.

The findings may grant the experts to control hyperactivity in children with inner-ear disorders with medications that directly or indirectly inhibit the pERK pathway in the striatum, the researchers claim.

“Our study also raises the intriguing possibility that other sensory impairments not associated with inner-ear defects could cause or contribute to psychiatric or motor disorders that are now considered exclusively of cerebral origin,” Hébert said.

Though the study demonstrates that the same effect can occur in people, further research is required at the area, the researchers emphasized.

Titled “Causative Link Between Inner Ear Defects and Long-Term Striatal Dysfunction”, the paper published in the journal Science.