Sanayi Roya, Rahimi Vida, Mohamadkhani Rahimi, Hoseinabadi Reza
Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Iran J Otorhinolaryngol. 2020 Sep;32(112):311-317. doi: 10.22038/ijorl.2019.39322.2301.
The majority of the daily life activities involve the concurrent performance of simultaneously challenging motor and cognitive activities, such as talking while walking, which requires the vestibular system for balance. Functional balance allows the brain to interpret and integrate the sensory information from our physical and social environment. This study aimed to investigate the effect of cognitive activities on the vestibular system function.
This study investigated the otolith system as a sensory organ that is responsible for linear acceleration by recording ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP) in 28 healthy participants (11 males and 17 females) with the age range of 18-26 years under a cognitive condition. The rest and intervention states were compared in terms of oVEMP n1-p1 amplitude, n1-p1 latencies, and gender.
The results showed that the oVEMP n1-p1 amplitude in both ears significantly decreased, and the asymmetry increased after cognitive tasks, compared to the rest state in females (P≤0.02). Moreover, there was no significant difference between the rest state and numeric subtraction task in terms of oVEMP n1-p1 latencies in males and females (P>0.05).
These results suggest that an augmented cognitive load causes an alteration in the oVEMPs; therefore, it is suggested that the structures associated with the cognitive processing are connected with the vestibular system in the brain. These findings demonstrate the importance of non-vestibular factors in balance, especially in females.
大多数日常生活活动都涉及同时进行具有挑战性的运动和认知活动，例如边走路边说话，这需要前庭系统来维持平衡。功能性平衡使大脑能够解释和整合来自我们身体和社会环境的感官信息。本研究旨在调查认知活动对前庭系统功能的影响。
本研究通过记录28名年龄在18 - 26岁的健康参与者（11名男性和17名女性）在认知条件下的眼前庭诱发肌源性电位（oVEMP），来研究作为负责线性加速度的感觉器官的耳石系统。比较了静息状态和干预状态下oVEMP的n1 - p1波幅、n1 - p1潜伏期以及性别差异。
结果显示，与静息状态相比，女性在认知任务后双耳的oVEMP n1 - p1波幅显著降低，不对称性增加（P≤0.02）。此外，男性和女性在静息状态和数字减法任务之间的oVEMP n1 - p1潜伏期没有显著差异（P>0.05）。
这些结果表明，增加的认知负荷会导致oVEMP发生改变；因此，提示与认知处理相关的结构在大脑中与前庭系统相连。这些发现证明了非前庭因素在平衡中的重要性，尤其是在女性中。
