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University of Manchester, Manchester M60 1QD, UK. neil.todd@manchester.ac.uk
Recent work has demonstrated that the human vestibular system displays a remarkable sensitivity to low-frequency vibration. To address the origin of this sensitivity we compared the frequency response properties of vestibular reflexes to 10ms bursts of air-conducted sound and transmastoid vibration, which are thought to be differentially selective for the saccule and utricle, respectively. Measurements were made using two separate central pathways: vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs), which are a manifestation of vestibulo-collic projections, and ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (OVEMPs), which are a manifestation of vestibulo-ocular projections. For both response pathways air-conducted sound and vibration stimuli produced the same patterns of quite different tuning. Sound was characterised by a band-pass tuning with best frequency between 400 and 800Hz whereas vibration showed a low-pass type response with a largest response at 100Hz. Our results suggest that the tuning is at least in part due to properties of end-organs themselves, while the 100Hz best frequency may be a specifically utricular feature.
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