[Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials in normal young people]

To observe the positive rate and other variances of the vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP)in normal young people.

Fifty-two normal young people aged from 21-22 years old including 31 males and 21 females were investigated. Intense clicks were given to one test ear and EMG was recorded from ipsilateral side.

VEMPs were presented in both ears in 47 subjects, absent in either of the two ears in 5 subjects. Variances averaged from all 94 positive ears were as follows (mean +/- standard deviation): latencies for p1 (15.97 +/- 3.22) ms, latencies for n2 (24.41+/- 2.46) ms, interval time between p1 and n2 (8.41 +/- 2.06) ms, amplitude (33.27 +/- 14.37) microV, threshold (93.67 +/- 5.20) dB nHL. Inter-subject variances averaged from 47 normal subjects were as follows:latencies for p1 (0.97 +/- 1.31) ms, latencies for n2 (1.23 +/- 1.30) ms, interval time between p1 and n2 (0.95 +/- 1.21) ms, amplitude (10.04 +/- 11.88) microV, threshold (2.29 +/- 2.56) dB nHL. There were no significant difference between males and females.

VEMP can be recorded in most normal subjects. VEMP may travel along the hypothesized response pathway from the vestibular sacculus to the inferior vestibular nerve, vestibular nucleus, and lateral vestibulospinal tract to the SCM muscle. VEMP recording could become an attractive method for testing otolithic receptors and vestibulospinal pathways.