Frequency Amplitude Ratio of Ocular Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential in Different Age Groups

BACKGROUND: High levels of sound intensity can be detected by the vestibular system. It is a clinical method used to assess the vestibularsystem’s response to sound stimulation. In healthy individuals, research has indicated that the use of low-frequency stimuli results in decreasedvestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) thresholds, especially a 500 Hz tone-burst. As people age, their frequency tuning changes, movingtowards higher frequencies.METHODS: Eighty healthy participants participated in this cross-sectional investigation. Both air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC) wereused as stimulation methods in the ocular VEMP (oVEMP) test. The following oVEMP parameters were assessed in the study: the inter-frequencypeak amplitude ratio (FAR). Furthermore, a rectified FAR (Frequency Amplitude Ratio)—a technique that normalizes the VEMP response amplitude according to the strength of muscle contraction as determined by EMG (Electromyogram) —was examined.RESULTS: Statistically significant differences in FAR and rFAR (rectified Frequency Amplitude Ratio) of oVEMP were observed among the 5 agegroups when using both AC and BC stimuli.