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REVIEW article

Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Imaging and Stimulation
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1518727

A Review of Parameter Settings for Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation in Clinical Applications

Provisionally accepted
Yishai Valter Yishai Valter 1,2*Linda Vataksi Linda Vataksi 1Aaron Allred Aaron Allred 3Jeffrey Hebert Jeffrey Hebert 4Tad Brunye Tad Brunye 5Torin K. Clark Torin K. Clark 3Jorge Manuel Serrador Jorge Manuel Serrador 6Abhishek Datta Abhishek Datta 1,2
  • 1 Soterix Medical Inc., New York, United States
  • 2 City College of New York (CUNY), New York City, New York, United States
  • 3 University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States
  • 4 University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, United States
  • 5 Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States
  • 6 New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) is a method of manipulating the vestibular system through non-invasive electrical current. Depending on how GVS is applied, it produces specific sensations related to vestibular mediated central pathways. The method has been tested for decades for both medical and non-medical applications and has demonstrated promise in treating a variety of disorders including peripheral vestibular conditions, central vestibular pathology due to neurodegenerative diseases, and post-stroke motor rehabilitation. As GVS continues to grow in popularity and applications, the field lacks clarity on appropriate stimulation parameters, despite their importance for safe and efficacious neuromodulation. This study aims to review the parameters used in various treatment applications while also providing a concise overview of the mechanisms underlying GVS thereby offering essential context and justification for the chosen parameters. We performed a literature search on the PubMed and Embase databases for clinical trials including the term “galvanic vestibular stimulation.” After removing duplicates, secondary analyses, and studies that did not use GVS for therapeutic purposes, we were left with 53 independent studies. We extracted the stimulation parameters used in each study and report them here. The results of this review suggest that while some stimulation parameters are relatively standardized for specific treatment indications, others lack universally accepted guidelines as the field of GVS continues to evolve. Based on our findings, we recommend that future GVS research include at least one sham condition, the use of individualized current intensity, and the comparison of multiple GVS parameters within the same trial.

    Keywords: GVS, galvanic vestibular stimulation, vestibular system, Balance disorder, Parameters optimization, post-stroke, Spatial Orientation, Motion Sickness

    Received: 28 Oct 2024; Accepted: 14 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Valter, Vataksi, Allred, Hebert, Brunye, Clark, Serrador and Datta. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yishai Valter, Soterix Medical Inc., New York, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.