Lee Guo-She, Dai Wei-Ting, Lee Shao-Hsuan
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Yangming Campus, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Department of Otolaryngology, Taipei City Hospital Renai Branch, Taipei, Taiwan.
Noise Health. 2025;27(124):41-50. doi: 10.4103/nah.nah_131_24. Epub 2025 Feb 28.
Vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) can be elicited using bone-conducted vibration (BCV) and air-conducted sound, with BCV VEMP typically associated with bilateral vestibular pathways. We employed a new acoustic masking method to obscure BCV VEMP, aiming to explore the feasibility of unilateral BCV VEMP testing.
Twenty healthy adults (20-37 years old; 10 males and 10 females) participated in the study. Vertical-axis vibrations (VAVs) of 500-Hz short-tone bursts (STB500) and 750-Hz short-tone bursts (STB750) were used to induce cervical VEMP. These stimuli were delivered through a Mini-Shaker placed at the vertex under three conditions: without acoustic masking (no masking [NOM]), with 100 decibels sound pressure level (dB SPL) speech noise masking (SNM), and with random interstimulus-interval tone bursts (rISITB), applied binaurally during VEMP testing.
The response rates for STB500 were less affected by SNM or rISITB (92.5% for NOM, 85.0% for SNM, and 75.0% for rISITB), whereas the response rates for STB750 were significantly reduced from 90.0% (NOM) to 17.5% (SNM) and 45.0% (rISITB) (p < 0.05, Fisher's exact test). The response amplitude and p13 latency of STB750 also differed significantly from those of STB500 (p < 0.05, two-way repeated measures analysis of variance). The VAVs of STB750 elicited a >90% response rate for cervical VEMP but showed an 80% decrease in response rate under SNM.
SNM proved more effective than rISITB in masking the VEMP response evoked by BCVs. This approach offers the potential for conducting VEMP tests on individual ears or targeting specific vestibular organs using BCV VEMP.
前庭诱发肌源性电位（VEMP）可通过骨传导振动（BCV）和声传导声音引出，BCV诱发的VEMP通常与双侧前庭通路相关。我们采用一种新的声学掩蔽方法来掩盖BCV诱发的VEMP，旨在探索单侧BCV诱发VEMP测试的可行性。
20名健康成年人（年龄20 - 37岁；男性10名，女性10名）参与本研究。使用500赫兹短音爆（STB500）和750赫兹短音爆（STB750）的垂直轴振动（VAV）来诱发颈肌VEMP。这些刺激通过置于头顶的小型振动器在三种条件下施加：无声学掩蔽（无掩蔽[NOM]）、100分贝声压级（dB SPL）言语噪声掩蔽（SNM）以及在VEMP测试期间双耳施加随机刺激间隔音爆（rISITB）。
STB500的反应率受SNM或rISITB的影响较小（NOM为92.5%，SNM为85.0%，rISITB为75.0%），而STB750的反应率从90.0%（NOM）显著降低至17.5%（SNM）和45.0%（rISITB）（p < 0.05，Fisher精确检验）。STB750的反应幅度和p13潜伏期也与STB500有显著差异（p < 0.05，双向重复测量方差分析）。STB750的VAV诱发颈肌VEMP的反应率>90%，但在SNM下反应率降低了80%。
SNM在掩盖BCV诱发的VEMP反应方面比rISITB更有效。这种方法为使用BCV诱发的VEMP对单耳进行VEMP测试或针对特定前庭器官提供了可能性。
