INFLUENCE OF DANCE TRAINING ON SACCULOCOLLIC PATHWAY: VESTIBULAR EVOKED MYOGENIC POTENTIALS (VEMP) AS AN OBJECTIVE TOOL

Abstract

Auditory system is shaped by experience and training. Training (sensory experience) induces neurophysiologic changes & plasticity in normal hearing individuals, hearing loss patients, hearing aid users and cochlear implanted subjects. Not only speech stimulus, but music also brings about functional and structural organization of the brain in musician compared to non-musicians. The Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP) are a biphasic inhibitory response elicited by loud clicks or tone bursts recorded from the tonically contracted sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM), being the only resource available to assess the function of the saccule and the inferior vestibular nerve (sacculocollic pathway) DESIGN: prospective study. AIM: The present study was conducted with an aim of studying plasticity of the sacculocollic pathway in professional dancers who are receiving dance training. METHOD: Two groups of subjects participated for the study a) experimental group; b) control group, experimental group was further divided in to two subgroupsProfessional dancers who have received training in salsa as well as Bharath natyam. Experimental group consisted of total 40 subjects (80 ears), 20 (40 ears) in each subgroup. Control group consisted of 40 individuals who have not received any professional training in dance (80 ears). RESULT: Results showed that there was statistically increase in amplitude of P13, N23 and P13-N23 as well as early latency of P13, and N23 in professional dancers compared to the control group. The difference in amplitude and latency between the two groups was attributed to plasticity of sacculocollic pathway in dancers. CONCLUSION: during aging process there is considerable deterioration of balance capability, loss of balance is a major risk factor for falls in middle aged and elderly people, to slow this deterioration of balance one should gradually and continuously stimulate balance through motor activity, People have become more health conscious and they expect to add more socially and economically productive years to their life span and hence dance based therapy can be useful which can be postulated from the results of present study using objective method. KEY WORDS: Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials (VEMP), Dancers, Plasticity, balance, objective method.