JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 
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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.Reciprocal Matched Filtering in the Inner Ear of the African Clawed Frog ( Xenopus laevis )
AbstractAnurans (frogs and toads) are the most vocal amphibians. In most species, only males produce advertisement calls for defending territories and attracting mates. Female vocalizations are the exceptions among frogs, however in the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) both males and females produce distinct vocalizations. The matched filter hypothesis predicts a correspondence between peripheral auditory tuning of receivers and properties of species-specific acoustic signals, but few studies have assessed this relationship between the sexes. Measuring hearing sensitivity with a binaural recording of distortion product...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - January 5, 2020 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
Human Auditory Detection and Discrimination Measured with the Pupil Dilation Response
AbstractIn the standard Hughson-Westlake hearing tests (Carhart and Jerger1959), patient responses like a button press, raised hand, or verbal response are used to assess detection of brief test signals such as tones of varying pitch and level. Because of its reliance on voluntary responses, Hughson-Westlake audiometry is not suitable for patients who cannot follow instructions reliably, such as pre-lingual infants (Northern and Downs2002). As an alternative approach, we explored the use of the pupillary dilation response (PDR), a short-latency component of the orienting response evoked by novel stimuli, as an indicator of...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - December 1, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
Quantitative Assessment of Anti-Gravity Reflexes to Evaluate
Vestibular Dysfunction in Rats
AbstractThe tail-lift reflex and the air-righting reflex are anti-gravity
reflexes in rats that depend on vestibular function. To obtain objective and
quantitative measures of performance, we recorded these reflexes with slow-motion
video in two experiments. In the first experiment, vestibular dysfunction was
elicited by acute exposure to 0 (control), 400, 600, or 1000 mg/kg of
3,3′-iminodipropionitrile (IDPN), which causes dose-dependent hair cell
degeneration. In the second, rats were exposed to sub-chronic IDPN in the drinking
water for 0 (control), 4, or 8 weeks; this causes reversible or irre...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - November 30, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
Spectral and Temporal Envelope Cues for Human and Automatic Speech Recognition in Noise
This study compared sentence-recognition scores of humans and an ASR software, Dragon, when spectral and temporal-envelope cues were manipulated in background noise. Temporal fine structure of meaningful sentences was reduced by noise or tone vocoders. Three types of background noise were introduced: a white noise, a time-reversed multi-talker noise, and a fake-formant noise. Spectral information was manipulated by changing the number of frequency channels. With a 20-dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and four vocoding channels, white noise had a stronger disruptive effect than the fake-formant noise. The same observation with...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - November 21, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
Effect of Middle-Ear Pathology on High-Frequency Ear Canal Reflectance Measurements in the Frequency and Time Domains
We describe an approach that utilizes sound frequencies as high as 20 kHz and quantifies reflectance in both the frequency and time domains. Experiments were performed with fresh normal human temporal bones before and after simulating various middle-ear pathologies, including malleus fixation, stapes fixation, and disarticulation. In addition to experimental data, computational modeling was used to obtain fitted parameter values of middle-ear elements that vary systematically due to the simulated pathologies and thus may have diagnostic implications. Our results demonstrate that the time-domain reflectance, which requires...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - October 30, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
A Non-linear Viscoelastic Model of the Incudostapedial Joint
AbstractThe ossicular joints of the middle ear can significantly affect middle-ear function, particularly under conditions such as high-intensity sound pressures or high quasi-static pressures. Experimental investigations of the mechanical behaviour of the human incudostapedial joint have shown strong non-linearity and asymmetry in tension and compression tests, but some previous finite-element models of the joint have had difficulty replicating such behaviour. In this paper, we present a finite-element model of the joint that can match the asymmetry and non-linearity well without using different model structures or parame...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - October 15, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
Sound Localization in Preweanling Mice Was More Severely Affected by Deleting the Kcna1 Gene Compared to Deleting Kcna2 , and a Curious Inverted-U Course of Development That Appeared to Exceed Adult Performance Was Observed in All Groups
AbstractThe submillisecond acuity for detecting rapid spatial and temporal fluctuations in acoustic stimuli observed in humans and laboratory animals depends in part on select groups of auditory neurons that preserve synchrony from the ears to the binaural nuclei in the brainstem. These fibers have specialized synapses and axons that use a low-threshold voltage-activated outward current,IKL, conducted through Kv1 potassium ion channels. These are in turn coupled with HCN channels that express a mixed cation inward mixed current,IH, to support precise synchronized firing. The behavioral evidence is that their respectiveKcna...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - August 12, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
Morphological Immaturity of the Neonatal Organ of Corti and Associated Structures in Humans
In this study, we analyzed temporal-bone sections at the light microscopic level in newborns and adults to quantify dimensions and geometry of cochlear structures thought to influence the mechanical response of the cochlea. Contrary to common belief, results show multiple morphological immaturities along the length of the newborn spiral, suggesting that important refinements in the size and shape of the sensory epithelium and associated structures continue after birth. Specifically, immaturities of the newborn basilar membrane and organ of Corti are consistent with a more compliant and less massive cochlear partition, whic...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - August 11, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
A Physiologically Inspired Model for Solving the Cocktail Party Problem
AbstractAt a cocktail party, we can broadly monitor the entire acoustic scene to detect important cues (e.g., our names being called, or the fire alarm going off), or selectively listen to a target sound source (e.g., a conversation partner). It has recently been observed that individual neurons in the avian field L (analog to the mammalian auditory cortex) can display broad spatial tuning to single targets and selective tuning to a target embedded in spatially distributed sound mixtures. Here, we describe a model inspired by these experimental observations and apply it to process mixtures of human speech sentences. This p...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - August 6, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
Pitch Matching Adapts Even for Bilateral Cochlear Implant Users with Relatively Small Initial Pitch Differences Across the Ears
AbstractThere is often a mismatch for bilateral cochlear implant (CI) users between the electrodes in the two ears that receive the same frequency allocation and the electrodes that, when stimulated, yield the same pitch. Studies with CI users who have extreme mismatches between the two ears show that adaptation occurs in terms of pitch matching, reducing the difference between which electrodes receive the same frequency allocation and which ones produce the same pitch. The considerable adaptation that occurs for these extreme cases suggests that adaptation should be sufficient to overcome the relatively minor mismatches s...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - August 4, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
Quantitative Assessment of Anti-Gravity Reflexes to Evaluate Vestibular Dysfunction in Rats
AbstractThe tail-lift reflex and the air-righting reflex are anti-gravity reflexes in rats that depend on vestibular function. To obtain objective and quantitative measures of performance, we recorded these reflexes with slow-motion video in two experiments. In the first experiment, vestibular dysfunction was elicited by acute exposure to 0 (control), 400, 600, or 1000 mg/kg of 3,3′-iminodipropionitrile (IDPN), which causes dose-dependent hair cell degeneration. In the second, rats were exposed to sub-chronic IDPN in the drinking water for 0 (control), 4, or 8 weeks; this causes reversible or irreversible loss of vest...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - July 10, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
Human Click-Based Echolocation of Distance: Superfine Acuity and Dynamic Clicking Behaviour
AbstractSome people who are blind have trained themselves in echolocation using mouth clicks. Here, we provide the first report of psychophysical and clicking data during echolocation of distance from a group of 8 blind people with experience in mouth click-based echolocation (daily use for> 3 years). We found that experienced echolocators can detect changes in distance of 3 cm at a reference distance of 50 cm, and a change of 7 cm at a reference distance of 150 cm, regardless of object size (i.e. 28.5 cm vs. 80 cm diameter disk). Participants made mouth clicks that were more intense and they made more clicks ...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - July 7, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
Pre-operative Brain Imaging Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Helps Predict Cochlear Implant Outcome in Deaf Adults
AbstractCurrently, it is not possible to accurately predict how well a deaf individual will be able to understand speech when hearing is (re)introduced via a cochlear implant. Differences in brain organisation following deafness are thought to contribute to variability in speech understanding with a cochlear implant and may offer unique insights that could help to more reliably predict outcomes. An emerging optical neuroimaging technique, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), was used to determine whether a pre-operative measure of brain activation could explain variability in cochlear implant (CI) outcomes and of...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - July 7, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
Osteoclasts Modulate Bone Erosion in Cholesteatoma via RANKL Signaling
In this study, we found that a significantly larger number of osteoclasts were observed on the eroded bone adjacent to choles teatomas than in unaffected areas, and that fibroblasts in the cholesteatoma perimatrix expressed RANKL. We also investigated upstream transcription factors of RANKL using RNA sequencing results obtained via Ingenuity Pathways Analysis, a tool that identifies relevant targets in molecular biology sy stems. The concentrations of four candidate factors, namely interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor α, and prostaglandin E2, were increased in cholesteatomas compared with normal skin. Fur...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - June 27, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
Rapamycin Protects Spiral Ganglion Neurons from Gentamicin-Induced Degeneration In Vitro
AbstractGentamicin, one of the most widely used aminoglycoside antibiotics, is known to have toxic effects on the inner ear. Taken up by cochlear hair cells and spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs), gentamicin induces the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and initiates apoptosis or programmed cell death, resulting in a permanent and irreversible hearing loss. Since the survival of SGNs is specially required for cochlear implant, new procedures that prevent SGN cell loss are crucial to the success of cochlear implantation. ROS modulates the activity of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, which ...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - June 23, 2019 Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research
