Near-field recordings expose the limits of far-field measures of peripheral vestibular nerve activity: implications for experimental controls

Vestibular short-latency evoked potentials (VsEPs) provide an objective measure of otolith-driven vestibular nerve activity but remain technically challenging to record when compared with cochlear evoked responses. This difficulty arises from the location of the vestibular system, in close proximity to the cochlea, which generates large biopotentials to similar stimuli....

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No actionable change for clinical practice; these findings primarily concern researchers using vestibular short-latency evoked potential (VsEP) recording setups in experimental and animal-model contexts.

Demonstrating that far-field VsEP recordings have meaningful limitations challenges a widely used methodological assumption in vestibular research, potentially prompting reassessment of published experimental controls across many prior studies.

1. 01Near-field recordings of vestibular short-latency evoked potentials (VsEPs) capture nerve signals more accurately than far-field scalp recordings.
2. 02Far-field measures can distort or underrepresent peripheral vestibular nerve activity, undermining their reliability as experimental controls.
3. 03Findings have direct implications for experimental design: current control paradigms using far-field methods may need revision.
4. 04Study published in Hearing Research, a peer-reviewed auditory and vestibular science journal.
5. 05Results are most relevant to basic/translational researchers rather than clinical audiologists.

PMID

42503283

DOI

10.1016/j.heares.2026.109751.

Journal

Hearing Research

Publication type

research_article

Evidence level

2b

Population

Experimental model(s) used to assess vestibular short-latency evoked potentials via near-field and far-field recording techniques

Intervention

Near-field recording of vestibular short-latency evoked potentials (VsEPs)

Comparator

Far-field recording of VsEPs