Vestibular Hearing and Speech Processing

Abstract

Vestibular hearing in human is evoked as a result of the auditory sensitivity of the saccule to low-frequency high-intensity tone. The objective was to investigate the relationship between vestibular hearing using cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs) and speech processing via word recognition scores in white noise (WRSs in wn). Intervention comprised of audiologic examinations, cVEMPs, and WRS in wn. All healthy subjects had detectable cVEMPs (safe vestibular hearing). WRSs in wn were obtained for them (66.9 ± 9.3% in the right ears and 67.5 ± 11.8% in the left ears). Dizzy patients in the affected ears, had the cVEMPs abnormalities (insecure vestibular hearing) and decreased the WRS in wn (51.4 ± 3.8% in the right ears and 52.2 ± 3.5% in the left ears). The comparison of the cVEMPs between the subjects revealed significant differences (P < 0.05). Therefore, the vestibular hearing can improve the speech processing in the competing noisy conditions.