Absent vestibular evoked myogenic potentials and graviception cofactors in adults with diabetes

This study was designed to explore the clinical characteristics (including quadriceps strength) of 166 adults (28–80 years old) with diabetes who have either present or absent bilateral otolith reflex responses by Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials (VEMPs), and its relation to graviception by the Subjective Visual Vertical (S.V.V.). After retinoscopy, electromyography, audiology, vestibular function and quadriceps strength evaluations, assessments were performed on ocular and cervical VEMPs, and estimation of S.V.V., during static condition and on-axis/ off-axis rotation (utricle/ semicircular canal stimulation). 43.9% participants had absent ocular VEMPs, which were not related to on-axis/ off-axis estimations, but to the quadriceps strength; 5.4% participants had absent cervical VEMPs. The S.V.V. during on-axis and off-axis rotation showed no linear relation to present/absent VEMPs, but to static S.V.V. standard deviation (precision), and to an interaction among gender, high blood pressure and dyslipidemia.

In conclusion, in adults with diabetes, metabolic compromise and macrovascular factors might contribute to otolith dysfunction; while the presence/absence of ocular VEMPs can be dissociated from the presence/absence of cervical VEMPs and from graviception during utricle/semicircular canal stimulation. No funds, grants, or other support was received. Unidad de Investigación Médica en Otoneurología, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Ciudad de México, 06720, México Kathrine Jáuregui-Renaud, José Adán Miguel-Puga & Aida García-López Hospital General de Zona 8, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Ciudad de México, 01090, México María de Lourdes Tirado-Mondragón & Lourdes Guadalupe González-Carrasco Correspondence to Kathrine Jáuregui-Renaud.

The authors declare no competing interests. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material.

You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Jáuregui-Renaud, K., Miguel-Puga, J.A., García-López, A. et al. Absent vestibular evoked myogenic potentials and graviception cofactors in adults with diabetes.

Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-75096-w DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-75096-w