Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials: optimal stimulation and clinical application.

By easily stimulating the ear with loud sound and recording on tonically contracted neck muscles, vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) test can reflect inner ear function other than the cochlea and semicircular canal. This expands the test battery for clinicians to explore saccular disease, adding a potential usefulness to the sacculo-collic reflex. The ideal stimulation mode for VEMPs is as follows: 95 dB tone bursts, frequency 500 Hz, stimulation repetition rate 5 Hz, rise/fall time 1 ms, plateau 2 ms, binaural stimulation with bilateral recordings. Animal model using guinea pigs has been established, which sets the stage for useful future studies investigating VEMPs in guinea pigs that would appear to resemble human VEMP responses. Clinically, VEMP test has been widely used in central and peripheral vestibular disorders.