Hearing Research最新文献

{"title":"Deciphering the ototoxic effects of six organochlorine pesticides on HEI-OC1 cells and mouse cochlear organotypic cultures","authors":"Shuangshuang Mao ,&nbsp;Ziying Zhang ,&nbsp;Can Zhang,&nbsp;Zihong Zhou,&nbsp;Xiaohua Tan,&nbsp;Dandan Song,&nbsp;Jianyun Zhang,&nbsp;Yang Song,&nbsp;Yu Hong,&nbsp;Rong Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109443","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109443","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), persistent pollutants with mutagenic and carcinogenic risks, that threatens humans, have received limited scientific attention despite their well-documented toxicity. Our study examined the ototoxicity of six prevalent OCPs (p,p’-DDT, p,p’-DDE, p,p’-DDD, Hexachlorocyclohexane, Endosulfan, Heptachlor) that are frequently identified in human biological samples, including blood and breast milk. Our findings revealed that OCPs caused cochlear damage in postnatal day 3 (P3) mice, and exhibited a dose-dependent toxicological response in House Ear Institute-Organ of Corti 1 (HEI-OC1) cells. OCPs exposure led to the generation of ROS (H₂O₂, O₂⁻, mtROS), calcium overload, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) decrease, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress activation. Western blot showed a marked reduction in the Bcl-2/Bax ratio, an elevated level of cleaved caspase-9/3, and four increased ER stress markers (p-eIF2α, ATF6, GRP78, CHOP). These results suggest that OCPs induce auditory cell apoptosis through interconnected pathways: oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, calcium dysregulation, and ER stress. This study provides mechanistic insights into OCP-related ototoxicity, emphasizing the need for stringent regulation of these pervasive environmental toxins.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"468 ","pages":"Article 109443"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145242557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reaction times of cochlear implant users to a change in electrode or modulation frequency in the presence of a masker.","authors":"E Noordanus, L H M Mens, A J van Opstal","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109375","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109375","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Spatial and temporal selectivity vary substantially between cochlear implant users, resulting in large differences in speech perception. Direct electrode stimulation offers precise control to capture this variability. However, most studies using direct stimulation have not incorporated interfering stimuli, which may not reflect the complex nature of speech and ambient noise. To address this gap, we introduce the Electrode Interaction Reaction Time (ELI-RT) paradigm, which uses amplitude-modulated, interleaved pulses on two closely spaced electrodes at clinical pulse rates. ELI-RT includes two test types: \"∆EL\", measuring the participants' manual reaction times to a change in stimulated electrode, and \"∆MF\", measuring reaction times to a modulation frequency change. Both tests include ongoing interference on an adjacent electrode. We also measured speech-in-noise recognition thresholds. We analyzed data from 16 unilateral cochlear implant users and found that ELI-RT could dissociate participant-, electrode-, and test-dependent factors. The effect of the electrode location along the array differed considerably between participants. The ∆EL and ∆MF tests provided partly complementary insights. Reaction times on these tests correlated with speech-in-noise perception, especially for changes that typically yielded shorter reaction times and for electrodes located in the middle of the array. In conclusion, reaction times to changes in the place of stimulation and modulation frequency, in the presence of interference from an adjacent electrode, offer detailed insights into the acuity of information transfer along the cochlear implant electrode array to the central auditory pathways in cochlear implant users.</p>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"466 ","pages":"109375"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144798881","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Functional hearing difficulties in Veterans with blast and blunt head trauma are associated with reduced fractional anisotropy in putative auditory radiations.","authors":"Oren Poliva, Christian Herrera, Kelli Sugai, Nicole Whittle, Marjorie R Leek, Samuel Barnes, Barbara Holshouser, Alex Yi, Jonathan H Venezia","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109387","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109387","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Veterans of recent military conflicts have experienced a high rate of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) due to blast exposure. A debilitating symptom often reported by such patients is an impaired ability to perceive complex sounds (e.g., impaired speech comprehension in noisy environments). In a prior report, we found a continuous measure of historical mTBI to be associated with changes in diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics across a large number of cortical white matter tracts among young to middle-aged Veterans. Notable among these tracts were the auditory radiations (AR), which connect subcortical and cortical auditory centers. Here, we further hypothesize that the changes to the AR correlate with a loss of auditory perceptual ability.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>In the present study, we analyze the same DTI data using a novel application of Randomized Parcellation Based Inference (RPBI), to identify regions in which white matter integrity (reduced fractional anisotropy) is correlated with both the mTBI index used previously, and with an objective measure of functional hearing difficulty (clinical words-in-noise test scores).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In a whole-brain analysis performed on the white matter skeleton, increased functional hearing difficulty and higher levels of blast and blunt head traumas were associated with reduced fractional anisotropy in circumscribed regions at the stems of the left and right temporal lobes (sagittal stratum). Comparison of these voxels to the AR, as delineated using probabilistic tractography in the same sample and a probabilistic atlas based on histological staining (Juelich), showed strong overlap between the whole-brain effects and the putative AR.</p>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"466 ","pages":"109387"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144811968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluation of thin-slice finite-element models for 3D cochlear organ of Corti mechanics.","authors":"Yanli Wang, Sunil Puria","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109378","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109378","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The micromechanics of the cochlear organ of Corti (OoC) are crucial for hearing, yet they remain poorly understood. This study explores a proposed finite-element (FE) modeling approach aimed at capturing the three-dimensional (3D) motion of the OoC under the influence of the traveling wave. This technique uses a thin slice of the cochlea, making computation feasible while preserving the intricate details of its structures. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and limitations of a slice modeling approach using a simple 'OoC' model representation, which is depicted as a semicircular tissue with a fluid channel traversing it. A full-length box model of the mouse cochlea was constructed and tested against experimental measurements, and its slice equivalent was created for the apical region. A Floquet boundary condition was applied at the longitudinal edges of the slice to capture the local effects of the traveling wave. The input pressure and wavenumber-frequency relationship for the slice were derived from the full-length box model. The results show the potential of the slice FE modeling technique with a Floquet boundary condition to accurately capture the transverse, radial, and longitudinal motions of the OoC that are present in the full-length box model.</p>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"466 ","pages":"109378"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12416405/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144798880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Altered cerebellar functional connectivity and topography in patients with unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss.","authors":"Chenghua Wu, Chengjie Gong, Zhongwen Jia, Yan Xia, Ying Zhao, Yangzhou Wu, Tong Chai, Lingling Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109384","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109384","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Evidence has demonstrated a close relationship between the cerebellum and auditory processing. However, altered patterns of cerebellar-brain connectivity and changes in the topological properties of the cerebellar network in patients with unilateral Sudden sensorineural hearing loss(SSNHL) remain to be elucidated. The present study collected blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) data from 63 patients suffering from unilateral SSNHL and 32 healthy subjects in order to perform functional connectivity (FC) and brain network analyses. The FC analysis was conducted using two distinct methodologies: voxel-wise analysis, based on the cerebellar network template, and ROI-wise analysis, based on the structural template. Concurrently, the analysis of cerebellar network properties was facilitated by graph theory.The results of the FC analysis demonstrated that multiple cerebellar functional and structural subdivisions of patients in both the left and right groups exhibited abnormal functional connectivity with multiple voxel clusters and brain regions. These abnormalities were predominantly located within the default and dorsal attention networks. Moreover, a comprehensive enquiry into the properties of the cerebellar network in the case group disclosed the existence of abnormalities, encompassing global attributes such as synchronisation, as well as nodal attributes, including degree centrality (Di), nodal efficiency (Ei), nodal clustering coefficient (Ci) and local efficiency (Eloc). A substantial negative correlation was subsequently ascertained between the nodal attributes Cp and Eloc in the cerebellar vermis 8 brain region and pure-tone audiometry (PTA). Choosing the cerebellum as a target to study the whole brain network may provide new perspectives for the investigation of the pathogenesis of SSNHL.</p>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"466 ","pages":"109384"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144798936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quick hyperacusis screening and insights from extended high-frequency audiometry, speech-in-noise perception and natural sound evaluation","authors":"Charlotte Fernandez ,&nbsp;Vincent Isnard","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109436","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109436","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hyperacusis is a hearing disorder characterized by decreased sound tolerance. However, diagnostic methods remain debated to take into account both the subjective complaint and an objective measure of hearing impairment. This study aims to propose a quick screening method for hyperacusis using a visual analog scale, combined with hearing assessments to specify the physiological and emotional factors involved in this hearing discomfort. First, a threshold of 6/10 on the visual analogue scale led to a sensitivity of 1 and a specificity of 0.94, on the categorization of a sample of hyperacusis (N = 9) and non-hyperacusis (N = 18) participants, whose diagnosis was validated by the Hyperacusis Questionnaire. The association between hyperacusis and hearing loss was also explored using audiological tests, such as extended high-frequency audiometry and speech-in-noise perception. Participants with hyperacusis showed elevated hearing thresholds in extended high frequencies and poorer speech-in-noise abilities, supporting a link between hyperacusis and peripheral auditory damage involved in hidden hearing loss. Finally, an assessment of natural sounds was proposed to identify the acoustic characteristics of sounds causing discomfort in hyperacusis participants. The functional impairment in terms of emotional experience was also confirmed, with a higher assessment of emotional arousal when listening to natural sounds than for non-hyperacusis participants. Harmonic-to-noise ratio has been identified as an acoustic characteristic specifically involved in this emotional assessment in hyperacusis participants. Nevertheless, the diversity of hyperacusis profiles encourages the use of complementary diagnostic measures, both audiological and emotional, and broad screening particularly for populations exposed to noise.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"467 ","pages":"Article 109436"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145244428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Distortion-product otoacoustic emission input-output characteristics of misophonic ears with normal hearing","authors":"B.R. Suraj Urs ,&nbsp;K.V. Nisha ,&nbsp;Alfarghal Mohamad ,&nbsp;Prashanth Prabhu","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109435","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109435","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Purpose</h3><div>The study aimed to evaluate the cochlear non-linear mechanisms in individuals with misophonia. We compared the absolute amplitude of distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) as a function of input using distortion product otoacoustic emissions input-output (DPOAE I/O) test and the slope of input-output curve in individuals with and without misophonia.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Total of 60 participants with normal hearing were split into two groups - with misophonia (30 participants, 60 ears) and without misophonia (30 participants, 60 ears), were considered in the study. The misophonic group was further divided into mild (16 participants, 32 ears) and moderate/severe (14 participants, 28 ears) misophonia groups based on the misophonia severity, which was assessed using the misophonia assessment questionnaire (MAQ). DPOAE amplitudes (output) corresponding to input levels of 45 to 75 dB SPL (5 dB steps) were obtained bilaterally for all the participants for six frequencies: 1 kHz, 1.5 kHz, 2 kHz, 3 kHz, 4 kHz, and 6 kHz. Along with amplitude (DPOAE O/P), the DPOAE I/O slope for each of the six frequencies was calculated.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The results of Kruskal Wallis H-test comparing DPOAE amplitudes at different input intensities between the three groups showed a statistically significant difference (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.01) at 2 kHz at all input intensities. Post hoc analysis showed Statistically significant differences (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.05) between (i) non-misophonics and moderate/severe misophonics at all input levels, and (ii) between mild misophonics and moderate/severe misophonics at input levels of 60, 65, 70, and 75 dB SPL. Statistically significant difference was also observed at 1 kHz for input levels of 50, 60, and 75 dB SPL, while post hoc analysis showed no significant differences between the three groups. Individuals with moderate/severe misophonia showed reduced DPOAE amplitudes at all input intensities. Although not statistically significant, the DPOAE I/O mean amplitudes at 1 kHz and 1.5 kHz were lower in individuals with moderate/severe misophonia when compared to individuals without misophonia. The Kruskal Wallis H-test showed no statistically significant difference (<em>p</em> &gt; 0.05) in input-output slope between individuals with (mild or moderate/severe) misophonia and without misophonia.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>The results suggest subtle differences in cochlear non-linear mechanisms in individuals with misophonia. These alterations represented at the higher auditory centres may indicate a possible contribution towards misophonia development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"467 ","pages":"Article 109435"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145206276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Multisensory assessment for hearing phenotypes","authors":"Andrea J. DeFreese ,&nbsp;René H. Gifford ,&nbsp;Iliza M. Butera ,&nbsp;Katelyn A. Berg ,&nbsp;Mackenzie A. Lighterink ,&nbsp;Mark T. Wallace","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109434","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109434","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite growing evidence of neural and behavioral plasticity following sensory loss, it remains unclear how multisensory processing varies across clinical hearing loss phenotypes. This study investigated visual perception and audiovisual (AV) integration in adults with varying degrees of hearing loss and hearing technology use. Participants included individuals with normal hearing (NH), hearing aid (HA) users, cochlear implant (CI) candidates, and CI users. To assess visual and multisensory processing, we administered a visual temporal order judgment (vTOJ) task, the McGurk illusion, a monosyllabic lipreading task, and an AV word recognition task. Results revealed a trend toward improved visual temporal resolution with increasing hearing loss severity, though this was confounded by age. McGurk illusion responses indicated that the presence of hearing loss decreased auditory weighting, while the severity of hearing loss increased visual weighting. Lipreading performance significantly improved as hearing loss progressed, with CI users outperforming all other groups—possibly due to the use of rehabilitation exercises in the CI clinical protocol. In contrast, AV benefit did not vary systematically with hearing loss, but showed a significant effect of age. Together, these findings suggest that visual performance and visual sensory weighting—more than AV integration per se—are modulated by hearing loss. These differences may reflect underlying plasticity of the cortical regions responsible for processing multisensory input. Furthermore, these findings highlight the potential utility of visual tasks in characterizing sensory phenotypes and informing clinical decision-making for individuals with hearing loss.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"467 ","pages":"Article 109434"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145154969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Retraction notice to \"Analytical and numerical modeling of the hearing system: Advances towards the assessment of hearing damage\" [Hearing Research 349 (2017) 111-128].","authors":"Annalisa De Paolis, Marom Bikson, Jeremy T Nelson, J Alexander de Ru, Mark Packer, Luis Cardoso","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109417","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109417","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":" ","pages":"109417"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145102703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Middle-ear sound transmission in human cadaveric temporal bones: fresh vs. fresh-frozen","authors":"Bastian Baselt,&nbsp;Merlin Schär,&nbsp;Alexander Huber,&nbsp;Jae Hoon Sim","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109433","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109433","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While fresh cadaveric temporal bones are preferable in middle-ear research, limited availability and strict ethical regulation often require the use of fresh-frozen temporal bones as an alternative. Previous studies have shown that freezing and thawing can alter mechanical properties of soft tissues like ligaments, muscles, and joints, yet the effect of freezing on middle-ear sound transmission has not been fully revealed. This study aims to investigate the effects of freezing by comparing the middle-ear transfer function (METF) between fresh and fresh-frozen temporal bones.</div><div>Data of 101 human temporal bones (57 fresh and 44 fresh-frozen) were analyzed. The magnitudes of the METF between 125 and 6000 Hz were averaged frequency-wise and compared between both groups. Further, each frequency-response curve was fitted with a rational polynomial, and all fitted curves were averaged for analysis of shape-preserving information such as the location of natural frequencies.</div><div>The average METF magnitude was considerably lower for fresh-frozen temporal bones in frequencies below 3000 Hz with differences of up to 7 dB. Shape-preserving analysis of frequency responses revealed two natural frequencies at 900 and 3487 Hz for fresh and at 988 and 3180 Hz for fresh-frozen temporal bones, with no statistically significant differences between fresh-frozen and fresh temporal bones.</div><div>With only a slight reduction in METF magnitude at low frequencies compared to large interindividual variabilities, fresh-frozen temporal bones can be considered as an alternative to fresh temporal bones. However, stiffening of middle-ear structures needs to be taken into account when using fresh-frozen temporal bones.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"467 ","pages":"Article 109433"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145244377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}