The invented apparatus for testing a subject's vestibular response to ear pressure or sound stimuli includes a headset including one or more and preferably (two) bilateral ear-worn devices such as headphones or probes, whereby each probe is configured to be inserted into a subject's ear in an operational alignment with the subject's ear canal and sealing engagement with the wall of the subject's ear canal, and a stimulus-producing mechanism operatively coupled with the headset configured to deliver defined pressure or sound stimuli to the one or more probes. The apparatus further includes one or both of 1) an ocular response analyzer operatively coupled to the headset, the ocular response analyzer measuring the subject's nystagmatic response to the stimuli by electronic, e.g. videographic, means and computerized comparison of potentially aberrational response data from the subject to recorded baseline subject data and 2) a sway response analyzer operatively coupled to the headset, the sway response analyzer including an inertial sensor of the subject's head and torso positional and orientational response to the stimuli and computerized comparison of potentially aberrational inertial data from the subject to recorded baseline inertial subject data. The invented stimulus-evoked vestibular disorder evaluation system includes a sound or aural pressure stimulus evocation apparatus presenting sound and/or air pressure to a subject's bilateral ear canals; a postural or ocular response measurement apparatus for analyzing the subject's response to a sound or pressure stimulus evoked by the sound or pressure stimulus evocation apparatus; and a computer program in the form of instructions residing in a memory and executing in a processor, the instructions configured to control the sound or aural pressure stimulus evocation apparatus in accordance with a defined protocol designed to minimize the effects of adaptation on postural response and to detect attempted malingering by the subject, and to monitor the postural or ocular response measurement apparatus in accordance with defined parameters.
Stimulus-evoked vestibular evaluation system, method and apparatus