Abstract
Vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) can be elicited using bone-conduction vibration (BCV) and air-conduction sound (ACS), with BCV VEMP conventionally linked to bilateral vestibular pathways. We employed a new method to obscure BCV VEMP using acoustic maskings, aiming to contribute to the possibility of unilateral BCV VEMP testings. Twenty healthy adults (20–37 years, 10 males10 females) were enrolled. The vertical-axis vibrations (VAVs) of 500-Hz short tone burst (STB500) and 750-Hz short tone burst (STB750) were used to induce cervical VEMP through a Mini-Shaker (model 4810, Bruel & Kjaer) placed at vertex without acoustic masking (NOM), with 100-dBSPL speech noise masking (SNM), or with random interstimulus-interval tone burst (rISITB) were applied binaurally during VEMP testing. While response rates of STB500 were relatively less affected by SNM or rISITB (92.5% for NOM, 85.0% for SNM, and 75.0% for ISITB), response rates of STB750 were significantly reduced from 90.0% (NOM) to 17.5% (SNM) and 45.0% (rISITB) (p < 0.001, Fisher’s exact test). The response amplitude and p13 latency of STB750 were also significantly different from those of STB500 (p < 0.01, two-way repeated measures ANOVA). VAVs of STB750 elicited a >90% response rate of cervical VEMP and had 80% diminish of response rate by SNM. SNM demonstrated superior masking efficacy to rISITB. Although further research is warranted for possibilities of clinical application, our results indicate the methodology here provides potential of conducting VEMP tests on an individual ear and/or a specific organ using BCV VEMP.