Cognitive function in individuals with different peripheral vestibular disorders: a comparative study

Abstract Introduction The vestibular neural network is connected to cortical and subcortical areas of the brain suggesting the possible interconnection between vestibular and cognitive functions. The study examines the impact of peripheral vestibular disorders like Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV), Meniere’s Disease (MD) and Acute Vestibular Neuropathy (AVN) on cognitive skills and its related aspects. The study also explored if there is any relationship between dizziness related to self-perceived handicap and cognitive skills among individuals with vestibular disorders. A cross-sectional study design was employed to assess cognitive skills using Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Digit span test (DST) in 34 individuals with peripheral vestibular dysfunction and 34 healthy controls. Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) was administered to assess the self-perceived dizziness related handicap. The relationship between the self-reported dizziness related handicap through Dizziness Handicap inventory (DHI) and performance-based cognition tests was assessed. Results Mann Whitney U test indicated significantly poorer scores on various cognitive domains of MoCA test and DST in individuals with vestibular dysfunction than healthy individuals. Comparison of the cognitive skills across individuals with BPPV, MD and AVN revealed no significant difference among them. There was no correlation observed between self-perceived dizziness handicap and cognitive abilities in individuals with vestibular dysfunction. Conclusion The study revealed that cognitive dysfunction is affected in individuals with peripheral vestibular loss, specifically in domains like visuospatial skills, executive functioning, memory, attention and language. However, cognition need not always linked to perceptual handicap reported by these individuals.