Ask the Experts: Thinking, Memory & Focus

Описание: In a wide-ranging interview, Dr. Jeffrey Sharon, a neurotologist at the University of California, San Francisco, explained how vestibular disorders impact cognitive functions like memory, attention, and executive processing. He described “brain fog” as the brain’s overwhelmed response to conflicting sensory inputs, where the prefrontal cortex works harder to compensate for missing vestibular information, leading to mental fatigue. Dr. Sharon noted that patients often experience short-term memory lapses and reduced multitasking ability due to disruptions in the hippocampus and frontal lobes—regions essential for spatial navigation and executive control. He emphasized the importance of treating coexisting anxiety and depression, which can exacerbate cognitive symptoms, and recommended a combination of vestibular rehabilitation therapy and cognitive strategies such as mindfulness and task simplification. Emerging research also suggests a potential link between vestibular dysfunction and increased risk for dementia, though Dr. Sharon acknowledged that more longitudinal studies are needed to determine causality and understand the underlying mechanisms.

Read more on VeDA's website: https://vestibular.org/article/coping...