Hearing Research最新文献

{"title":"Narrow elliptical motion at the outer hair cell-Deiters’ cell junction explains disparate features of uniaxial displacement measurements","authors":"Brian L. Frost ,&nbsp;C. Elliott Strimbu ,&nbsp;Elizabeth S. Olson","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109189","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109189","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sound-evoked displacement responses at the outer hair cell-Deiters’ cell junction (OHC-DC) are of significant interest in cochlear mechanics, as OHCs are believed to be in part responsible for active tuning enhancement and amplification. Motion in the cochlea is three-dimensional, and the architecture of the organ of Corti complex (OCC) suggests the presence and mechanical importance of all three components of motion. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) displacement measurements of OHC-DC motion from different experimental preparations often show disparate results, potentially due to OCT measuring only the motion component along the beam axis. In this work, we show that narrow elliptical motion at the OHC-DC – nearly along a straight line, where towards-base longitudinal motion is in phase with towards-scala-media transverse motion – can explain two such preparation-dependent differences. We present longitudinal and transverse components of displacement responses from the OHC-DC in the gerbil base in response to moderately high-level sound stimuli that exhibit precisely this <em>near-lineal motion</em>. The results show the potential for active longitudinal energy transfer in the OCC.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"458 ","pages":"Article 109189"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143052244","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":"Supporting cell involvement in cochlear damage and repair: Novel insights from a quantitative analysis of cyclodextrin-induced ototoxicity in mice","authors":"Dalian Ding ,&nbsp;Guang Di Chen ,&nbsp;Celia Zhang ,&nbsp;Mengxiao Ye ,&nbsp;Henry J. Adler ,&nbsp;Rania Sharaf ,&nbsp;Kayla Naldrett ,&nbsp;Tanisi Mittal ,&nbsp;Bo Hua Hu","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109201","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109201","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The cochlea is vulnerable to various pathological conditions, with sensory cells typically being the primary targets of damage. However, supporting cells also experience significant impacts. Despite their critical role in maintaining the structural and functional integrity of the sensory epithelium, the supporting cell involvement in cochlear damage remains poorly understood. This study aimed to elucidate the susceptibility of supporting cells in cochlear damage and their role in structural repair, using a mouse model of ototoxicity induced by cyclodextrin—a cyclic oligomer of glucose that is known to preferentially damage outer hair cells at high doses. A morphological examination of the cochlea showed that cyclodextrin exposure caused significant sensory cell loss, particularly affecting outer hair cells across the cochlear spiral, except at the apex. Despite extensive hair cell damage, most supporting cells in the apical and middle cochlear regions survived. In the basal end, where substantial supporting cell loss occurred, certain Deiters’ cells survived even after losing their phalangeal processes. Additionally, our observations indicate that Hensen's cells contribute to forming an epithelial layer over the basilar membrane when the organ of Corti collapses. Further quantitative analysis revealed location-dependent susceptibility among supporting cell types. Deiters’ cells demonstrated greater resilience than pillar cells. Notably, the three rows of Deiters’ cells displayed differential susceptibility: the third row showed a more significant loss in regions with sporadic Deiters’ cell loss, while the first row exhibited an increased loss in areas adjacent to regions of complete Deiters’ cell depletion. The reduction of Hensen's cells started in the middle section of the cochlea, occurring at a greater level than the reduction observed in Deiters’ and pillar cells. However, in the extreme base, where both pillar and Deiters’ cells were largely or completely absent, some Hensen's cells were still present. Together, these findings provide new insights into the varying vulnerability of supporting cells to cochlear damage and underscore their essential role in structural repair.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"459 ","pages":"Article 109201"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143386305","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":"Not-so-normal hearing: Temporary hearing changes lead to chronic difficulties for listeners with ”normal” audiometric thresholds","authors":"Douglas S. Brungart ,&nbsp;Gregory M. Ellis ,&nbsp;Alyssa Davidson ,&nbsp;Hector Galloza ,&nbsp;Benjamin Sheffield ,&nbsp;Jaclyn Schurman","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109183","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109183","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hearing loss has historically been mainly associated with elevated pure-tone thresholds. However, in recent years, there has been increased interest in addressing the hearing difficulties reported by individuals with normal hearing thresholds. In this study, we measured hearing thresholds, noise history, temporary threshold shift history, and hearing difficulty for a sample of 10,492 Service Members. Our data reveal that overall hearing difficulties increase systematically as a function of hearing threshold within the range that is conventionally considered to be ”normal” hearing. Noise exposure history is associated with increasing hearing difficulty at all thresholds, particularly individuals with a history of noticeable changes in their hearing after noise exposure. These results challenge some fundamental assumptions of current hearing conservation programs and suggest that variations in post-noise hearing symptoms may reflect differences in individual susceptibility to permanent damage from noise exposure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"458 ","pages":"Article 109183"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143046441","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":"Comparing approaches for predicting behavioural speech-in-noise performance using cortical responses to unattended stimuli","authors":"Suwijak Deoisres,&nbsp;Ghadah S. Aljarboa,&nbsp;Steven L. Bell,&nbsp;David M. Simpson","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109197","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109197","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The cortical tracking of the acoustic envelope is a phenomenon where the brain's electrical activity, as recorded by electroencephalography (EEG) signals, fluctuates in accordance with changes in stimulus intensity (the acoustic envelope of the stimulus). Understanding speech in a noisy background is a key challenge for people with hearing impairments. Speech stimuli are therefore more ecologically valid than clicks, tone pips, or speech tokens (e.g., syllables) for assessing hearing. However, it remains unclear whether EEG responses to speech provide an advantage in predicting speech intelligibility. This study aimed to assess the ability of cortical responses to speech and speech-related sounds to predict behavioural speech-in-noise performance in listeners with normal hearing when they are not attending to the stimuli.</div><div>Twenty native English-speaking adults with normal hearing (aged 18 to 40 years) participated in a speech reception task, listening to English Matrix sentences presented at signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of -15, -10, -5, 0, and ∞ (no background noise) dB, and then identifying the words they heard in the sentences. In the EEG experiment, the participants then listened to continuous speech, broadband noise modulated by the envelope of speech, and repeating short /da/ stimuli presented at the same SNR levels as in the Matrix test. For the latter, Auditory Late Response (ALR) was estimated from the EEG, and for the former, the strength of the envelope-tracking responses was calculated.</div><div>Cortical responses to all stimuli showed monotonic relationships with the signal-to-noise ratio at the group level and in most individuals, although there was considerable variability. EEG analysis in the delta band showed no significant difference in the number of participants with predicted speech reception thresholds (SRTs) within an error margin of 7 dB—the level at which SRT prediction is considered applicable—regardless of the type of cortical response used. In the theta band, however, SRT predictions based on cortical responses to continuous speech performed worse, showing a significantly lower number of predictions within an error margin of 7 dB compared to those based on cortical responses to modulated noise and the repeating /da/ sound. The proportion of individual SRT predictions with an error margin within 7 dB was, at best, 30 %.</div><div>For people with normal hearing, cortical responses to continuous speech and modulated noise predicted speech-in-noise performance at the group level but not at the individual level, due to variability in cortical tracking of the acoustic envelope. Predicting the SRT on an individual level remains a major and clinically important challenge.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"457 ","pages":"Article 109197"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143004357","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":"Toward cognitive models of misophonia","authors":"Marie-Anick Savard,&nbsp;Emily B.J. Coffey","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109184","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109184","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Misophonia is a disorder in which specific common sounds such as another person breathing or chewing, or the ticking of a clock, cause an atypical negative emotional response. Affected individuals may experience anger, irritability, annoyance, disgust, and anxiety, as well as physiological autonomic responses, and may find everyday environments and contexts to be unbearable in which their ‘misophonic stimuli’ (often called ‘trigger sounds’) are present. Misophonia is gradually being recognized as a genuine problem that causes significant distress and has negative consequences for individuals and their families. It has only recently come under scientific scrutiny, as researchers and clinicians are establishing its prevalence, distinguishing it from other disorders of sensory sensitivity such as hyperacusis, establishing its neurobiological bases, and evaluating the effectiveness of potential treatments. While ideas abound as to the mechanisms involved in misophonia, few have coalesced into models. The aim of the present work is to summarize and extend recent thinking on the mechanistic basis of misophonia, with a focus on moving towards neurologically-informed cognitive models that can (a) account for extant findings, and (b) generate testable predictions. We hope this work will facilitate future refinements in our understanding of misophonia, and ultimately inform treatments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"458 ","pages":"Article 109184"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143058874","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":"The mechanisms of frequency tuning in gecko auditory hair cells","authors":"Robert Fettiplace,&nbsp;Maryline Beurg","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109186","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109186","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We developed an isolated auditory papilla of the crested gecko to record from the hair cells and explore the origins of frequency tuning. Low-frequency cells displayed electrical tuning, dependent on Ca²⁺-activated K⁺ channels; high-frequency cells, overlain with sallets, showed a variation in hair bundle stiffness which when combined with sallet mass could provide a mechanical resonance of 1 to 6 kHz. Sinusoidal electrical currents injected extracellularly evoked hair bundle oscillations at twice the stimulation frequency, consistent with fast electromechanical responses from hair bundles of two opposing orientations, as occur in the sallets. Current evoked oscillations were reduced by lowering Ca²⁺, but not by block of the mechanotransduction channels by dihydrostreptomycin or salicylate block of prestin. We suggest the phenomenon may augment passive mechanical tuning of the sallets over the high-frequency region.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"457 ","pages":"Article 109186"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143004407","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":"Gonad-derived steroid hormones mediate a sex difference in the maturation of auditory encoding in the cochlea from adolescence to early adulthood in C57BL/6J mice","authors":"Nicholas R. Lozier ,&nbsp;Max A. Aizenstein ,&nbsp;Essence D. Williams ,&nbsp;Marίa E. Rubio","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109187","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109187","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sexually mature females of multiple mammalian species were previously reported to have increased peripheral auditory sensitivity, often measured as higher auditory brainstem response (ABR) wave I amplitude compared to males. Here, we determined potential hormonal and genetic (i.e., XX- vs. XY-linked genes) contributions to this sex difference by recording ABRs in gonadally intact and gonadectomized female and male wildtype (WT) and four core genotypes (FCG) C57BL/6J mice. WT females at postnatal day 38 (P38) and P65, and FCG mice with ovaries at P65 had higher wave I amplitude than males, and the difference was absent in gonadectomized mice. Furthermore, in WT mice, we addressed the initiation and duration of the sex difference in wave amplitude from pre-pubescence (P25) through maturation from post-pubescent late adolescence to early adulthood (P38, P65, and P95) in both the cochlea and cochlear nucleus. In both female and male mice, wave I amplitude decreased by 50 % from P25 to P95. However, the amplitude in females was 22 % and 11 % higher than males at P38 and P65, respectively. In gonadectomized mice, there was no sex difference in wave I amplitude at any age tested, due to a decrease in gonadectomized females. In contrast, we found that wave II amplitude remains relatively constant over these ages in both sham and gonadectomized WT female and male mice. Together, the data suggest that gonad-derived hormones differentially refine the maturation of wave I, but not wave II, amplitude between late adolescence and early adulthood.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"457 ","pages":"Article 109187"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143004405","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":"Convergent validity of cortical auditory evoked potential indices of central auditory nervous system inhibition in people with and without tinnitus","authors":"Kenneth Morse,&nbsp;Leah Morse","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109185","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109185","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Tinnitus is the perception of a ringing, buzzing, or other sound without the presence of an external stimulus. Reduced central auditory nervous system inhibition is a commonly reported mechanism contributing to a person's tinnitus perception. Different cortical auditory evoked potential (CAEP) studies have supported the presence of reduced inhibition in people with tinnitus. Although previous CAEPs used to study tinnitus do broadly represent inhibitory function, it is not entirely clear if the different CAEPs present similarly within an individual. To address this gap in knowledge, the current study evaluated the convergent validity between different CAEPs that broadly reflect inhibitory function, called sensory gating and onset-offset CAEPs. Convergent validity between sensory gating and onset-offset CAEPs was evaluated as a function of participant tinnitus status, stimulus frequency, and CAEP quantification approach. The results indicated that sensory gating and onset-offset CAEP responses indicative of inhibitory function did not demonstrate strong convergent validity. Further, the strength of convergent validity did not differ between people with and without tinnitus. However, experimental factors that yielded more robust CAEPs, such as broadband stimuli, and more comprehensive measures of amplitude, such as total response area, resulted in better convergent validity compared to higher frequency stimuli and more isolated measures of amplitude like peak amplitude. Overall, these findings suggest that the specific inhibitory mechanisms represented by sensory gating and onset-offset CAEPs differ. Therefore, each CAEP may be better suited to study distinct populations and/or inhibitory functions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"458 ","pages":"Article 109185"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143079458","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":"Administration of nicotinamide mononucleotide suppresses the progression of age-related hearing loss in mice","authors":"Kouya Hattori ,&nbsp;Takashige Hamaguchi ,&nbsp;Rika Azuma-Suzuki ,&nbsp;Seiichiro Higashi ,&nbsp;Aiko Manji ,&nbsp;Masashi Morifuji","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109182","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2025.109182","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is a widespread problem in the elderly, significantly impairing their quality of life. Despite its high prevalence, no fundamental treatment for ARHL has been established. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺) is required for various biological processes and tissue levels of the coenzyme NAD⁺ are known to decrease with age. A previous report suggested that declining NAD⁺ levels induce age-related diseases and NAD⁺ supplementation might be effective for treating or preventing age-related diseases. To clarify the effect of NAD⁺ supplementation on ARHL, C57BL/6J mice used as an animal model of ARHL were treated with nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), a precursor of NAD⁺. Oral administration of NMN at 500 mg/kg/day effectively suppressed the development of ARHL in C57BL/6J mice. To elucidate the mechanism by which NMN administration suppressed the development of ARHL, NAD⁺-related metabolites were assessed, and a comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of the inner ear tissue was performed. NMN administration resulted in increased NAD⁺ levels in inner ear tissues and induced changes in the transcriptome, specifically in genes related to metal ion metabolism. These findings suggest that NMN administration enhanced NAD⁺ levels in inner ear tissues, modulating metal ion metabolism to potentially protect against oxidative stress. This study provides a novel therapeutic approach to mitigating ARHL through NAD⁺ supplementation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"457 ","pages":"Article 109182"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142947666","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":"Brain activation patterns in normal hearing adults: An fNIRS Study using an adapted clinical speech comprehension task","authors":"András Bálint ,&nbsp;Wilhelm Wimmer ,&nbsp;Marco Caversaccio ,&nbsp;Christian Rummel ,&nbsp;Stefan Weder","doi":"10.1016/j.heares.2024.109155","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.heares.2024.109155","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objectives</h3><div>Understanding brain processing of auditory and visual speech is essential for advancing speech perception research and improving clinical interventions for individuals with hearing impairment. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is deemed to be highly suitable for measuring brain activity during language tasks. However, accurate data interpretation also requires validated stimuli and behavioral measures.</div></div><div><h3>Design</h3><div>Twenty-six adults with normal hearing listened to sentences from the Oldenburg Sentence Test (OLSA), and brain activation in the temporal, occipital, and prefrontal areas was measured by fNIRS. The sentences were presented in one of the four different modalities: speech-in-quiet, speech-in-noise, audiovisual speech or visual speech (i.e., lipreading). To support the interpretation of our fNIRS data, and to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the study population, we performed hearing tests (pure tone and speech audiometry) and collected behavioral data using validated questionnaires, in-task comprehension questions, and listening effort ratings.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>In the auditory conditions (i.e., speech-in-quiet and speech-in-noise), we observed cortical activity in the temporal regions bilaterally. During the visual speech condition, we measured significant activation in the occipital area. Following the audiovisual condition, cortical activation was observed in both regions. Furthermore, we established a baseline for how individuals with normal hearing process visual cues during lipreading, and we found higher activity in the prefrontal cortex in noise conditions compared to quiet conditions, linked to higher listening effort.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>We demonstrated the applicability of a clinically inspired audiovisual speech-comprehension task in participants with normal hearing. The measured brain activation patterns were supported and complemented by objective and behavioral parameters.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12881,"journal":{"name":"Hearing Research","volume":"455 ","pages":"Article 109155"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142784967","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}