Comparison of cervical and ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentialsin dancers and non-dancers

Abstract

The objective of the study was to assess the sacculocollic and otolithocular pathway function using cervical vestibular evoked myogenicpotentials (cVEMP) and ocular vestibular myogenic potentials(oVEMP) in dancers and non dancers. Total 16 subjects participated inthe study. Out of 16 participants, 8 were trained in Indian classicalform of dance (dancers) and other 8 participants who were not trainedin any dance form (non dancers). cVEMP and oVEMP responses wererecorded for all the subjects. Non Parametric Mann-Whitney U testrevealed no significant difference between dancers and non dancersfor the latency and amplitude parameter for cVEMP and oVEMP, i.e.P13, N23 latency and P13-N23 complex amplitude and N10, P14 laten-cy, N10-P14 complex amplitude respectively. The vestibular systemcomprises of several structures. It is possible that the dance style prac-ticed by the dancer’s group assessed in this study does not contributetowards improving the plasticity of the sacculocollic and otolith-ocularpathways. It can be concluded that not all forms of dance trainingbrings about a change in the plasticity of the sacculocollic and otolith-ocular pathways.