Abstract
Background: Previous studies have demonstrated spatial cognitive deficits in patients with bilateral vestibulopathy (BVP). However, BVP patients frequently present with a concomitant sensorineural hearing loss, which is a well-established risk factor of cognitive impairment and incident dementia. Nonetheless, previous research on spatial cognitive deficits in BVP patients have not taken hearing status into account.Objective: This study aims to compare spatial cognition of BVP patients with healthy controls, with analyses adjusting for hearing status.Methods: Spatial cognition was assessed in 64 BVP patients and 46 healthy controls (HC) by use of the Virtual Morris Water Task (VMWT). All statistical analyses were adjusted for hearing (dys)function, sex, age, education, and computer use.Results: Overall, patients with BVP performed worse on all outcome measures of the VMWT. However, these differences between BVP patients and healthy controls were not statistically significant. Nonetheless, a statistically significant link between sensorineural hearing loss and spatial cognition was observed. The worse the hearing, the longer subjects took to reach the hidden platform in the VMWT. Furthermore, the worse the hearing, the less time was spent by the subjects in the correct platform quadrant during the probe trial of the VMWT.Conclusion: In this study, no difference was found regarding spatial cognition between BVP patients and healthy controls. However, a statistically significant link was observed between sensorineural hearing loss and spatial cognition.
Highlights
A growing body of literature recognizes that the function of the vestibular system goes far beyond balance and gaze stability
No significant group difference was observed, it seemed that, on the other hand, hearing loss was found to be statistically significantly associated with worse spatial cognition
The study was especially designed to determine the relative importance of hearing loss in spatial cognition of bilateral vestibulopathy (BVP) patients, as this has been frequently overlooked
Summary
A growing body of literature recognizes that the function of the vestibular system goes far beyond balance and gaze stability Both animal and human research suggests that the vestibular system plays a critical role in cognition [1,2,3,4]. Impaired Spatial Cognition in Bilateral Vestibulopathy and memory, social cognition, attention, executive function, and visuospatial abilities [5] Of these, it seems that visuospatial abilities, which compromises spatial memory and navigation, is by far the most studied cognitive domain in animals and humans with loss of peripheral vestibular input [2, 4, 6]. Spatial cognition has been studied in patients with vestibular loss using the Virtual Morris Water Task (VMWT) [3, 7, 8]. Previous research on spatial cognitive deficits in BVP patients have not taken hearing status into account
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