Animal models of balance pathologies: New tools to study peripheral vestibulopathies

The different types of peripheral vestibulopathies (PVs) or peripheral vestibular disorders (PVDs) are essentially diagnosed on the basis of their clinical expression. The heterogeneity of vestibular symptoms makes it difficult to stratify patients for therapeutic management. Animal models of PVs are a good mean to search for clinical evaluation criteria allowing to objectively analyze the kinetics of expression of the vertigo syndrome and to evaluate the benefits of therapeutic strategies, whether they are pharmacological or rehabilitative. The question of the predictability of these animal models is therefore crucial for the identification of behavioral and biological biomarkers that could then be used in the human clinic. In this review, we propose an overview of the different animal models of PVs, and discuss their relevance for the understanding of the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms and the development of new and more targeted therapeutic approaches.