RESUMO
To evaluate the effect of aging on the vestibular evoked potentials. Fifty males free from auditory and vestibular symptoms participated in this study. They were divided into 5 groups according to age; 15-25, 26-40, 41-55, 56-65 and 66 years and above. One channel recordings were obtained using three electrodes; active electrode placed on the upper half of sternocleidomastoid muscle ipsilateral to the stimulated ear, reference electrode placed on the lateral end of the upper sternum and a ground electrode placed on the fore head. Rarefaction clicks of 0.1 milliseconds duration were generated by D.C. pulse and delivered via a TDH-49 P. Telephonics ear phone. Monaural stimulation was employed with a stimulus presentation level of 95 dB nHL and stimulus repetition rate of 5 Hz. EMG signals were amplified and band pass filtered between 10 and 500 Hz. Each averaged response was based upon 100 stimulus sweeps and was replicated once. The results of this study showed that VEMP is a reproducible response the distinct morphology of which decreases by age. VEMP is a reproducible response that can be incorporated intoclinical use but results should be cautiously interpreted when dealing with older age groups as distinct morphology decreases with age