JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Putting the Pieces Together: the Hair Cell Transduction Complex
AbstractIdentification of the components of the mechanosensory transduction complex in hair cells has been a major research interest for many auditory and vestibular scientists and has attracted attention from outside the field. The past two decades have witnessed a number of significant advances with emergence of compelling evidence implicating at least a dozen distinct molecular components of the transduction machinery. Yet, how the pieces of this ensemble fit together and function in harmony to enable the senses of hearing and balance has not been clarified. The goal of this review is to summarize a 2021 symposium prese...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - October 6, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Reflection-Source Emissions Evoked with Clicks and Frequency Sweeps: Comparisons Across Levels
AbstractAccording to coherent reflection theory, otoacoustic emissions (OAE) evoked with clicks (clicked-evoked, CE) or tones (stimulus frequency, SF) originate via the same mechanism. We test this hypothesis in gerbils by investigating the similarity of CE- and SFOAEs across a wide range of stimulus levels. The results show that OAE transfer functions measured in response to clicks and sweeps have nearly equivalent time –frequency characteristics, particularly at low stimulus levels. At high stimulus levels, the two OAE types are more dissimilar, reflecting the different dynamic properties of the evoking stimulus. At mi...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - October 4, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emission (DPOAE) Growth in Aging Ears with Clinically Normal Behavioral Thresholds
AbstractAge-related hearing loss (ARHL) is a devastating public health issue. To successfully address ARHL using existing and future treatments, it is imperative to detect the earliest signs of age-related auditory decline and understand the mechanisms driving it. Here, we explore early signs of age-related auditory decline by characterizing cochlear function in 199 ears aged 10 –65 years, all of which had clinically defined normal hearing (i.e., behavioral thresholds ≤ 25 dB HL from .25 to 8 kHz bilaterally) and no history of noise exposure. We characterized cochlear function by measuring behavioral thresholds ...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - September 30, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Investigating Cortical Responses to Noise-Vocoded Speech in Children with Normal Hearing Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)
AbstractWhilst functional neuroimaging has been used to investigate cortical processing of degraded speech in adults, much less is known about how these signals are processed in children. An enhanced understanding of cortical correlates of poor speech perception in children would be highly valuable to oral communication applications, including hearing devices. We utilised vocoded speech stimuli to investigate brain responses to degraded speech in 29 normally hearing children aged 6 –12 years. Intelligibility of the speech stimuli was altered in two ways by (i) reducing the number of spectral channels and (ii) reducing t...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - September 28, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Infant Pitch and Timbre Discrimination in the Presence of Variation in the Other Dimension
AbstractAdult listeners perceive pitch with fine precision, with many adults capable of discriminating less than a 1 % change in fundamental frequency (F0). Although there is variability across individuals, this precise pitch perception is an ability ascribed to cortical functions that are also important for speech and music perception. Infants display neural immaturity in the auditory cortex, suggesting that pitch discrimination may improve throughout infancy. In two experiments, we tested the limits of F0 (pitch) and spectral centroid (timbre) perception in 66 infants and 31 adults. Contrary to expectations, we found tha...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - September 14, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Cochlear Implant Research and Development in the Twenty-first Century: A Critical Update
AbstractCochlear implants (CIs) are the world ’s most successful sensory prosthesis and have been the subject of intense research and development in recent decades. We critically review the progress in CI research, and its success in improving patient outcomes, from the turn of the century to the present day. The review focuses on the process ing, stimulation, and audiological methods that have been used to try to improve speech perception by human CI listeners, and on fundamental new insights in the response of the auditory system to electrical stimulation. The introduction of directional microphones and of new noise re...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - August 25, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Characteristics of the Deconvolved Transient AEP from 80  Hz Steady-State Responses to Amplitude Modulation Stimulation
This study aimed to validate the existence and investigate the characteristics of the transient responses from conventional auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs) using deconvolution methods capable of dealing with amplitude modulated (AM) stimulation. Conventional ASSRs to seven stimulus rates were recorded from 17 participants. A deconvolution method was selected and modified to accommodate the AM stimulation. The calculated responses were examined in terms of temporal features with respect to different combinations of stimulus rates. Stable transient responses consisting of early stage brainstem responses and middle la...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - August 20, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Identification of Cellular Voids in the Human Otic Capsule
This study aims to identify and characterize cellular voids of the human otic capsule. This would allow future cellular void quantification and comparison of void and otos clerotic distribution to further elucidate the yet unknown pathogenesis of otosclerosis. (Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology)
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - August 20, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Correction to: An Alternative Explanation for Difficulties with Speech in Background Talkers: Abnormal Fusion of Vowels Across Fundamental Frequency and Ears
A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10162-021-00802-6 (Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology)
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - July 16, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Aging Effects on Cortical Responses to Tones and Speech in Adult Cochlear-Implant Users
This study recorded cortical auditory evoked potentials from younger to middle-aged (<  65 years) and older (≥ 65 years) cochlear-implant (CI) listeners to assess age-related changes in temporal processing, where cochlear processing is bypassed in this population. Aging effects were compared to age-matched normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Advancing age was associated with prolon ged P2 latencies in both CI and NH listeners in response to a 1000-Hz tone or a syllable /da/, and with prolonged N1 latencies in CI listeners in response to the syllable. Advancing age was associated with larger N1 amplitudes in NH listen...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - July 6, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Examining the Factors that Contribute to Non-Monotonic Growth of the $$2f_1 - f_2$$ 2 f 1 - f 2  Otoacoustic Emission in Humans
AbstractCubic distortion product otoacoustic emission input –output functions in humans show a complex pattern of growth. To further investigate the growth of the\(2f_1-f_2\) otoacoustic emission, magnitude and phase input –output functions were obtained from human subjects using a range of stimulus levels, frequencies, and frequency ratios. Three factors related to cochlear nonlinearity may produce non-monotonic input–output functions: a two-component interaction, an operating point shift, and two-tone suppressio n. To complement data interpretation, a local model of distortion product otoacoustic emission generatio...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - June 1, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Visual Influences on Auditory Behavioral, Neural, and Perceptual Processes: A Review
AbstractIn a naturalistic environment, auditory cues are often accompanied by information from other senses, which can be redundant with or complementary to the auditory information. Although the multisensory interactions derived from this combination of information and that shape auditory function are seen across all sensory modalities, our greatest body of knowledge to date centers on how vision influences audition. In this review, we attempt to capture the state of our understanding at this point in time regarding this topic. Following a general introduction, the review is divided into 5 sections. In the first section, ...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - May 20, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Effects of Several Therapeutic Agents on Mammalian Vestibular Function: Meclizine, Diazepam, and JNJ7777120
In this study, two commonly prescribed medications, meclizine and diazepam, and a candidate for future clinical use, JNJ7777120, were evaluated for their effects on short latency compound action potentials generated by the peripheral vestibular system and corresponding central neural relays (i.e., vestibular sensory-evoked potentials, VsEPs). The effects of the selected drugs developed slowly over the course of two hours in the mouse. Findings indicate that meclizine (600  mg/kg) and diazepam (>  60 mg/kg) can act on peripheral elements of the vestibular maculae whereas diazepam also acts most effectively on central...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - May 19, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Hearing Impairment and Cognition in an Aging World
AbstractWith the increasing number of older adults around the world, the overall number of dementia cases is expected to rise dramatically in the next 40  years. In 2020, nearly 6 million individuals in the USA were living with Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia, with anticipated growth to nearly 14 million by year 2050. This increasing prevalence, coupled with high societal burden, makes prevention and intervention of dementia a medical and public health priority. As clinicians and researchers, we will continue to see more individuals with hearing loss with other comorbidities including dementia. Epi...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - May 18, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research

Otoconia Structure After Short- and Long-Duration Exposure to Altered Gravity
This study provides a purely descriptive account of otoconia remodeling after exposures to altered gravity. The mechanism(s) underlying these processes must be identified and quantitatively validated to develop countermeasures to altered gravity levels during exploration missions. (Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology)
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - May 18, 2021 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research