A Comparison of Auditory and Vestibular Responses in Hearing-Impaired Children

Abstract

Bone and air conduction thresholds of a group of twenty-five severely hearing-impaired children were measured and compared with the results of caloric tests of vestibular function recorded by electronystagmography. Although in general the presence of a vestibular response is related to measurable bone conduction responses, but not to air conduction thresholds, and the absence of a vestibular response is related to severe air conduction hearing loss but not to bone conduction thresholds, the relationship between auditory and vestibular responses is of negligible value in predicting hearing thresholds from vestibular responses in individual cases. Neither the vestibular hearing theory nor the tactile hearing theory alone can explain the occurrence of a low frequency air-bone gap in all cases.