Hearing Loss, Vestibular Loss and Cognitive Performance

Inclusion criteria for BVP patients were: 1. Bilaterally reduced vestibular function, as defined by the Bárány Criteria for BVP (Michael Strupp 2017): * horizontal angular VOR gain \< 0.6 measured by the vHIT, and/or * reduced caloric response (sum of bithermal, 30° and 44°, max. peak slow phase velocity (SPV) on each side \< 6°/sec), and/or * reduced horizontal angular VOR gain \< 0.1 upon sinusoidal stimulation on a rotatory chair. At our clinic rotatory chair tests are performed using sinusoidal rotation (0.05 Hertz) with a peak velocity of 60°/sec (Van der Stappen A 2000). 2. Disease duration of BVP \> 6 months. Healthy controls (HC). Only subjects with no history of vertigo, scores \<5 on the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) and normal hearing thresholds at 0.25 - 8 kHz, based on age and sex (defined by the BS 6951:1988, EN 27029:1991 and ISO 7029-1984 standards), were enrolled in the study. For both BVP patients and HC the following additional inclusion criteria were applied: 1) Age ≥ 18 years; 2) Fluency in Dutch; 3) No history of neurological diseases (e.g. dementia, Parkinson's disease, cerebrovascular accident, etc.); 4) Absence of clinical signs indicating dementia or mild cognitive impairment.