mVEMP in patients with migraine (Tas Elibol et al., 2024)

Purpose: Masseter vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (mVEMP) involve the connection between the vestibular complex and trigeminal nerve nuclei. Given the theory that migraine is caused by increased activation of the trigeminal nerve, it is believed that mVEMP responses may have influenced in migraine patients.

Method: The study included 20 individuals with migraine and 20 healthy controls. Latency, amplitude, and interaural amplitude asymmetry ratio of mVEMP responses recorded in migraine patients were compared with control group.

Results: Considering the mVEMP normalization study conducted by Başöz et al. (2021) in a similar age group and in the same clinic, latency prolongation and amplitude decrease were observed in subjects with migraines. Migraine is considered a central pathology, as shown in the cervical and ocular VEMP (cVEMP/oVEMP) literature. No difference was observed in the interaural amplitude asymmetry ratio, which is important in peripheral pathologies. Additionally, when the number of pathological ears was examined in order to understand the total exposure, it was observed that the number of pathological ears was significantly higher in the migraine group.

Conclusion: In future studies, using mVEMP together with cVEMP and oVEMP tests, which allow evaluation of otolith organs and vestibular nuclei, will be valuable in determining the lesion location.

Supplemental Material S1. P1, N1, N1-P1 latency, and N1-P1 amplitude values of the participants in the migraine and control groups, whose mVEMP responses were obtained with 500-Hz tone burst and click stimuli, were compared on an ear-by-ear basis (control/migraine, N = 40 ears).

Tas Elibol, N., Başöz Behmen, M., Terlemez, S., & Konukseven, Ö. (2024). Evaluation of masseteric vestibular evoked myogenic potentials in patients with migraine. American Journal of Audiology, 33(2), 510–517. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_AJA-23-00256