Comparison of bone-conduction cervical VEMPs across different transducers
Faculty Advisor Name
Erin G. Piker, Au.D., Ph.D.
Department
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Description
The Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential (VEMP) is a reflexive response that measures the integrity of the otolith end organs. A VEMP can be elicited using a variety of stimuli including air conduction or bone conduction. Bone conducted VEMPs provide several benefits over its air conduction counterpart. However, clinically available bone vibrators, such as the Radioear B-71, show significant low-frequency output limitations below 500 Hz. This is problematic because the best frequencies to elicit a VEMP when using bone conduction is in the range of 200 – 500 Hz. Radioear recently released a new bone vibrator, the B-81, which was designed to achieve higher output levels at low frequencies with less harmonic distortion. Independent labs have reported that the B-81 does in fact produce better electroacoustic output in the low frequencies, compared to the B-71, when the stimulus is a pure tone. However, it is unknown how the new Radioear B-81 bone vibrator will perform when the stimulus is a transient and whether the transducer will be more efficient than the B-71 for eliciting bone conducted VEMPs. The purpose of the proposed research is to 1) compare the output limitations across different bone transducers using stimuli common to cervical VEMP (cVEMP) recordings, and 2) measure and compare bone conducted cVEMPs (BC-cVEMP) elicited with the B-71 versus B-81 bone vibrators. Low frequency tone burst stimuli, output limitations, and frequency specificity will be assessed. The amplitude, latency, and threshold of the BC-cVEMP will be compared across transducers using various frequencies. The results will provide useful information on the efficacy of both transducers to evoke a VEMP and improve the accuracy of identifying otolith dysfunction.
Comparison of bone-conduction cervical VEMPs across different transducers
The Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential (VEMP) is a reflexive response that measures the integrity of the otolith end organs. A VEMP can be elicited using a variety of stimuli including air conduction or bone conduction. Bone conducted VEMPs provide several benefits over its air conduction counterpart. However, clinically available bone vibrators, such as the Radioear B-71, show significant low-frequency output limitations below 500 Hz. This is problematic because the best frequencies to elicit a VEMP when using bone conduction is in the range of 200 – 500 Hz. Radioear recently released a new bone vibrator, the B-81, which was designed to achieve higher output levels at low frequencies with less harmonic distortion. Independent labs have reported that the B-81 does in fact produce better electroacoustic output in the low frequencies, compared to the B-71, when the stimulus is a pure tone. However, it is unknown how the new Radioear B-81 bone vibrator will perform when the stimulus is a transient and whether the transducer will be more efficient than the B-71 for eliciting bone conducted VEMPs. The purpose of the proposed research is to 1) compare the output limitations across different bone transducers using stimuli common to cervical VEMP (cVEMP) recordings, and 2) measure and compare bone conducted cVEMPs (BC-cVEMP) elicited with the B-71 versus B-81 bone vibrators. Low frequency tone burst stimuli, output limitations, and frequency specificity will be assessed. The amplitude, latency, and threshold of the BC-cVEMP will be compared across transducers using various frequencies. The results will provide useful information on the efficacy of both transducers to evoke a VEMP and improve the accuracy of identifying otolith dysfunction.
