TY - JOUR
T1 - Evidence of central involvement in essential tremor
T2 - a detailed study of auditory pathway physiology
AU - Sengul, Yildizhan
AU - Bal, Nilufer
AU - Louis, Elan D.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the study participants and control subjects for their contributions to this study and Tess Cersonsky and Keith Radler for their valuable contribution. Corresponding author thanks Turkish Neurological Society and Dr. Rumeyza Kazanc?oglu for their support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2020/8/1
Y1 - 2020/8/1
N2 - Essential tremor (ET) is a common tremor disorder that is likely neurodegenerative. The pathophysiology of ET involves the cerebellum and its connections in the brainstem and thalamus. Hearing dysfunction has been shown to be a non-motor finding in ET patients. A limited number of studies have suggested that cochlear pathology is the cause, but studies have not evaluated the integrity of the primary auditory pathway in ET. The main aim of this study is to investigate the integrity of the auditory pathway via auditory brainstem response (ABR) and auditory middle latency response (AMLR), thereby allowing us to evaluate the auditory pathway from the 8th cranial nerve to the cerebral cortex. Sixteen ET patients and sixteen age- and gender-matched controls (64 ears) were evaluated. In the ABR study, we detected prolongation of wave V peak latencies (ms) in ET (p = 0.02). In the AMLR study, P0 (p = 0.03), Pa (p = 0.008), Na (p = 0.03), and Nb (p = 0.01) waves differed between the two groups. Eleven ET patients and four control subjects had abnormal electrophysiological findings (ABR or AMLR or both) (68.8% vs. 25%, p = 0.01). Tremor duration was greater in ET patients with abnormal electrophysiological findings (p = 0.01). Finally, we observed prolongation of latencies after the ABR III wave, indicating that abnormalities exist within the superior olivary complex. For the first time, our research provides evidence that ET-related pathology is present at the subcortical and cortical levels of the auditory pathway.
AB - Essential tremor (ET) is a common tremor disorder that is likely neurodegenerative. The pathophysiology of ET involves the cerebellum and its connections in the brainstem and thalamus. Hearing dysfunction has been shown to be a non-motor finding in ET patients. A limited number of studies have suggested that cochlear pathology is the cause, but studies have not evaluated the integrity of the primary auditory pathway in ET. The main aim of this study is to investigate the integrity of the auditory pathway via auditory brainstem response (ABR) and auditory middle latency response (AMLR), thereby allowing us to evaluate the auditory pathway from the 8th cranial nerve to the cerebral cortex. Sixteen ET patients and sixteen age- and gender-matched controls (64 ears) were evaluated. In the ABR study, we detected prolongation of wave V peak latencies (ms) in ET (p = 0.02). In the AMLR study, P0 (p = 0.03), Pa (p = 0.008), Na (p = 0.03), and Nb (p = 0.01) waves differed between the two groups. Eleven ET patients and four control subjects had abnormal electrophysiological findings (ABR or AMLR or both) (68.8% vs. 25%, p = 0.01). Tremor duration was greater in ET patients with abnormal electrophysiological findings (p = 0.01). Finally, we observed prolongation of latencies after the ABR III wave, indicating that abnormalities exist within the superior olivary complex. For the first time, our research provides evidence that ET-related pathology is present at the subcortical and cortical levels of the auditory pathway.
KW - Auditory brainstem response
KW - Auditory pathway
KW - Essential tremor
KW - Middle latency response
KW - Neurodegenerative
KW - Pathology
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U2 - 10.1007/s00702-020-02215-w
DO - 10.1007/s00702-020-02215-w
M3 - Article
C2 - 32507996
AN - SCOPUS:85086127224
SN - 0300-9564
VL - 127
SP - 1153
EP - 1159
JO - Journal of Neural Transmission
JF - Journal of Neural Transmission
IS - 8
ER -