2007 NEWS
New Findings Could Lead to New Generation of Cochlear Implants
December 18, 2007 A Rutgers University team led by neuroscientist Robin Davis is opening new doors to improved hearing for the congenitally or profoundly deaf. Their findings could lead to a new generation of cochlear implants.
Frequent Ear Infections Can Lead to Cyst
December 16, 2007
The Link Between Hearing and Cholesterol
December 15, 2007 Levels of cholesterol in the membranes of hair cells in the inner ear can affect your hearing, said a consortium of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University and Purdue University in a report in today’s print edition of The Journal of Biological Chemistry.
One Family's Jouney With Hearing Aids
November 25, 2007 She calls them her "hearing maids," or maybe it is "hearing mades"; we may never know for sure. There's a lot of that with our daughter, Angeliki, 4, who got hearing aids last fall. A lot of things you just don't know, like how this journey will end.
Acoustic Trauma Cases One-Third of Deafness
November 21, 2007 Up to 28 million Americans have impaired hearing and for as many as a third, acoustic trauma is a significant contributor, reports the December 2007 issue of Harvard Men's Health Watch.
Children With Hearing Loss Spend More Time in Emergency Rooms
November 20, 2007 Children who have hearing problems are much more likely than other children to end up in an emergency room with a wide variety of injuries, researchers say.
Genes Influence Age-Related Hearing Loss
November 16, 2007 A new Brandeis University study of twins shows that genes play a significant role in the level of hearing loss that often appears in late middle age.
Cells in Developing Ear May Explain Tinnitus
October 31, 2007 Brain scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered how cells in the developing ear make their own noise, long before the ear is able to detect sound around them.
Hearing Loss Warning on Ipotence Drugs
October 21, 2007 Viagra and other impotence drugs are about to bear new warnings that users may experience sudden hearing loss.
Music Training Linked to Enhanced Verbal Skills
September 25, 2007 Music training, with its pervasive effects on the nervous system's ability to process sight and sound, may be more important for enhancing verbal communication skills than learning phonics, according to a new Northwestern University study.
Home Grown Hair Cells
September 25, 2007 Researchers have developed a technique to grow "bona fide" hair cells of the inner ear from chick sensory tissue, reports a study in this week's PNAS.
AHRF's David Klodd, Ph.D., Quoted in Chicago Sun Times
September 16, 2007 Kehoe was 80 years old, and had been mostly deaf for nearly 40 years, when he suddenly got his wish. An electronic ear, called a cochlear implant, restored Kehoe's hearing.
Hunters' Hearing At Risk
September 11, 2007 The loud reports of high-powered rifles or shotguns in popular hunting calibers and gauges can produce decibels that exceed the accepted threshold of pain, which is 140 decibels.
Scientists Develop New Test For Hearing Loss
September 6, 2007 A Purdue University researcher is working on a new technique to diagnose hearing loss in a way that more accurately reflects real-world situations.
Making Deaf Ears Hear With Light
August 10, 2007 A laser-based approach could make cochlear implants, which currently use electrical signals, more effective.
Electrical Implant Steadies Balance in Animals
August 8, 2007 Hearing and balance experts at Johns Hopkins report successful testing in animals of an electrical device that partly restores a damaged or impaired sense of balance.
Brain Scans Shed Light on Tinnitus
August 1, 2007 Experiments are under way mostly in Europe, using sophisticated imaging techniques that allow doctors to "see" areas in the brain where sound signals are no longer translated - progress that could help doctors target new treatments.
SIDS Study LinksDeaths to Inner Ear Abnormality
July 28, 2007 Researchers reported that all babies in a small study group who died of sudden infant death syndrome - the exact cause of which still eludes doctors - shared the same abnormality in their right inner ear in a hearing test administered at birth.
Ability to Listen to Two Things at Once Inherited
July 17, 2007 Your ability to listen to a phone message in one ear while a friend is talking into your other ear--and comprehend what both are saying--is an important communication skill that's heavily influenced by your genes, say researchers of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), one of the National Institutes of Health.
Farmers Face Higher Risk of Hearing Loss
July 15, 2007 A new study reveals that not only are farmers already at a higher risk for hearing loss, but those with hearing aids have more work-related injuries.
Study Examines Cause of Hearing Loss for Patients with Certain Genetic Disease
July 3, 2007 Patients with the genetic disorder von Hippel-Lindau disease may suddenly experience hearing loss because of a tumor-associated hemorrhage in the inner ear, according to a study in the July 4 issue of JAMA.
Music Fans Face "Hearing Loss Timebomb"
July 2, 2007 Music fans could be facing a "hearing loss timebomb", a charity has warned, and urged the assembly government to introduce a noise limit on live music.
Stem Cells May Help Hearing Loss
June 26, 2007 Bone marrow stem cells injected into a damaged inner ear can speed hearing recovery after partial hearing loss, says a Japanese study.
Auditory Nerve Implant Can Deliver Wide Range of Sounds, Early Tests Show
June 7, 2007 scientists have shown in animals that it’s possible to implant a tiny, ultra-thin electrode array in the auditory nerve that can successfully transmit a wide range of sounds to the brain
New Technology Improves Hearing Aids
June 6, 2007 New technology inspired by the hearing apparatus of flies improves hearing aids.
Cartilage Shield Shown to Help Restore Hearing in Some Chronic Ear Infection Patients
May 31, 2007 Inserting a “shield” of cartilage into the inner ear is a less invasive and more cost-effective alternative to membrane reconstruction when treating hearing loss in selected patients suffering from chronic middle ear infections (otitis media), according to a new study published in the June 2007 edition of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.
Nineteen Million Americans Negatively Impacted By Hearing Loss
May 18, 2007 Nearly one in four adults (23%) who know someone with hearing loss say they have either a spouse or significant other with hearing loss. Of the 27 million U.S. adults with hearing loss, the number one cited relationship that suffered was the one with their romantic partner (35%), followed by friends, family members and coworkers.
Clinical Trial of Combination Hearing Aid-Cochlear Implant Begins
May 15, 2007 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has opened a national clinical trial of a hearing device that combines hearing aid and cochlear implant technology in the same ear.
Hearing Loss is Increasing, But So Are Solutions
May 13, 2007 A growing number of forty and fiftysomethings, baby boomers who grew up on rock music, played in bands and have enjoyed living loud in general, are seeking a new form of high-tech relief: Digital hearing devices that help recapture the high pitch frequency sounds they're beginning to lose.
Too Many Babies DOn't Get Second Test for Hearing
May 10, 2007 A third of newborns who fail their hearing screening test don't get a follow-up evaluation, leaving them susceptible to delays in language development that they might never overcome, a report says today.
Test Identifies Early Chemotherapy-Related Hearing Loss
April 20, 2007 Among children undergoing platinum-based chemotherapy, early changes in auditory function can be detected using extended high-frequency (EHF) audiometry and evoked distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs), according to a report in the April 1st Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Experience Seeing A Person's Face Makes It Easier To Hear Them
April 12, 2007 Experience hearing a person's voice allows us to more easily hear what they are saying. Now research by UC Riverside psychology Professor Lawrence D. Rosenblum and graduate students Rachel M. Miller and Kauyumari Sanchez has shown that experience seeing a person's face also makes it easier to hear them.
Stem Cells May Lead to a Treatment for Hearing Loss
April 6, 2007 Members of the National Center for Regenerative Medicine research team, Dr. Robert Miller and Dr. Kumar Alagramam, both of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, recently published research findings in Developmental Neuroscience which suggest new ways of treating hearing loss.
Misplaced Cochlear Implants Raise Menengistis Risk
April 4, 2007 Findings from a study conducted in rats suggest that cochlear implants, which are used to treat severe hearing loss, can cause meningitis -- inflammation of the membrane surrounding the brain -- if they are not placed properly during surgery.
Thin Structure in Inner Ear Responds to Different Frequencies
March 28, 2007 New research suggests that a thin structure in the inner ear called the tectorial membrane responds to different frequencies.
Skilled Ear For Music May Help Develop Language Skills
March 20, 2007 Writing in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience, researchers from Northwestern University say that both skills draw on parts of the brain that help people detect changes in pitch.
American Academy of Audiology Research Shows that Hearing Aids Do Improve Quality of Life
March 19, 2007 An article published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology (JAAA) (Volume 18, Number 2) indicates that people with hearing loss who choose to wear hearing aids do experience a better quality of life than those who do not wear hearing aids.
Hearing Loss May Raise Risk of Meningitis in Kids
March 16, 2007 Findings from a study of Danish children suggest that hearing loss greatly increases the risk of meningitis. Therefore, parents of children with hearing loss should familiarize themselves with the signs and symptoms of meningitis.
Researchers Investigate How Musical Training Can Tune the Human Auditory System
March 16, 2007 A newly published study by Northwestern University researchers suggests that Mom was right when she insisted that you continue music lessons -- even after it was clear that a professional music career was not in your future.
Fossil Discovery Sheds Light on the Evolution of the Inner Ear
March 15, 2007 A fossil of a newly-discovered, chipmunk-sized mammal that roamed the world with the dinosaurs 125 million years ago provides a missing link in the evolution of the middle ear, according to a researcher at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Geneitic Hearing Loss May Be Reversible Without Gene Therapy
February 28, 2007 A large proportion of genetically caused deafness in humans may be reversible by compensating for a missing protein, based on discoveries in mice.
Aging Nation Faces Growing Hearing Loss
February 19, 2007 An aging U.S. population faces a looming crisis in hearing loss, researchers said Saturday. Some research holds promise, but much is in the early stages.
Inner Ear Implant May Help Restore Balance
February 15, 2007 People who have lost their sense of balance could one day be fitted with an inner ear implant modelled on the body’s own balance organs, say researchers.
Study Looks at Benefits of Two Cochlear Implants in Deaf Children
February 13, 2007 New research suggests that deaf children who have a cochlear implant in each ear more accurately locate sounds when they use both implants instead of one.
Researchers Identify Molecular Cause for One Form of Deafness
February 5, 2007 Scientists exploring the physics of hearing have found an underlying molecular cause for one form of deafness, and a conceptual connection between deafness and the organization of liquid crystals, which are used in flat-panel displays.
Corticosteroids Help In Hearing Loss Recovery
January 30, 2007 Time and oral corticosteroid therapy can help patients regain full hearing, often within a month of sudden hearing loss, say researchers in Seoul.
AHRF Presdient Alan Micco, M.D., Discusses Hearing Aids That Incorporate Bluetooth Technology
January 26, 2007 Hearing aids that have Bluetooth cell phone technology help their users blend in.
New Wensite Documents Deaf Experience During World War II
January 23, 2007 A new website describing and documenting the experiences of deaf people during World War II is now online, thanks to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college of Rochester Institute of Technology.
Outcomes Comparable for Younger and Older Children with Bone Anchored Hearing Aids
January 15, 2007 Outcomes following surgically implanted hearing aids that are anchored to bone appear comparable for children younger than 5 years and those older than 5 years, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
NIDCD-Funded Research Explores the Use of Lasers to Stimulate the Auditory Nerve
January 4, 2007 The research looks into the use of lasers to stimulate the auditory nerve, and could lead to improved cochlear implants.
Study Offers Hope For Long-Term Relief of Meniere's Disease Symptoms
January 3, 2007 A study in the January issue of The Archives of Otolaryngology--Head & Neck Surgery suggests that
Folic Acid May Slow Hearing Loss
January 2, 2007 Older adults taking folic acid supplements show less loss of low frequency hearing.