Electroencephalography Microstate Alterations in Otogenic Vertigo: A Potential Disease Marker

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Medical Imaging
• Vestibular System

Background:

• Otogenic vertigo affects a large population, particularly the elderly.
• Changes in the multi-modal vestibular network secondary to peripheral vestibular dysfunction are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify potential electroencephalography (EEG) microstate signatures for otogenic vertigo.
• To investigate alterations in EEG microstate dynamics and syntax in patients with vertigo.

Main Methods:

• Recruited patients with recurrent otogenic vertigo and age-matched healthy adults.
• Performed 256-channel EEG recordings during resting state.
• Utilized neuropsychological questionnaires and vestibular function tests for symptom assessment.
• Clustered EEG microstates (A, B, C, D) and analyzed their dynamic and syntax features.
• Employed a support vector machine (SVM) classifier to identify vertigo-specific microstate signatures.

Main Results:

• Observed increased duration of Microstate A and increased occurrence/coverage of Microstate D in patients.
• Found decreased coverage/occurrence of Microstate C.
• Identified altered transition probabilities between microstates (A-D, B-C).
• Achieved a balanced accuracy of 0.79 (sensitivity 0.78, specificity 0.8) using SVM with identified features.

Conclusions:

• Temporal dynamic alterations in EEG microstates are present in otogenic vertigo patients.
• Microstate D changes reflect visual-vestibular reorganization and attention redistribution.
• EEG microstate signatures show potential for identifying patients with vertigo.