Ear and Hearing最新文献

{"title":"Preference and Outcomes for Fast Versus Slow Compression in Hearing Aids for Older Adults: A Randomized Control Trial.","authors":"Richard Windle, Harvey Dillon, Antje Heinrich","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001716","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000001716","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To determine whether normally aging older adults, fitted with hearing aids, report a benefit from, or a preference for, slow or fast-acting compression, and whether this relationship is influenced by cognitive ability, hearing loss, or previous experience with hearing aids.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>A single-blinded, crossover randomized control trial. Fifty-six participants were recruited from the population attending a UK National Health Service (NHS) hearing assessment clinic, both new and experienced hearing aid users. Participants were aged 56 to 85 years, with symmetrical mild-to-moderate hearing loss. Participants trialed hearing aids for 2 months in each of two settings, slow or fast-acting compression. Speech recognition in quiet and in noise were measured, unaided and aided after fitting with each compression setting. A battery of cognitive tests, self-reported hearing aid outcomes and the participant's preference for the first or second fitting were also collected at the end of the trial.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Seventy-seven percent of participants stated a preference for one of the compression speed settings. A roughly equal number of participants preferred fast or slow-acting compression. Hearing thresholds were the only predictive factor for compression speed preference: the larger the hearing loss, the more likely it was that patients preferred a slower compression speed. Neither cognitive scores nor the degree of experience with hearing aids predicted the preference for either compression speed. Objective benefit, measured by speech understanding in quiet and in noise, was not affected by compression speed.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Participants with a greater degree of hearing loss tended to prefer slow-acting compression. The optimum boundary between the preference for \"fast\" versus \"slow\" compression speed was a four-frequency average hearing threshold of 35 dB HL in the better ear. When the default compression speed was set to \"fast\" for those with an average hearing threshold below 35 dB HL, and to \"slow\" for those with a greater degree of hearing loss, this setting correctly reflected a user's preference in about four in five cases. Neither compression speed offered a significant benefit for speech recognition in noise and quiet. Likewise, neither cognitive performance nor previous experience with hearing aids predicted the amount of reported benefit or preference. Limitations to the study included a positive association between hearing threshold and experience with hearing aids. The study also demonstrated a strong association between the preference and the order of compression speed provided, with users tending to prefer the second fitting.</p>","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145042485","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":"Identifying the Network Structure Among Comorbid Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Community-Dwelling Adults With and Without Hearing Difficulty: A Bayesian Network Analysis.","authors":"Xue Wang, Jiaqi Yu, Wendie Zhou, Yanyan Li, Qinqin Liu, Hejing Chen, Cuili Wang","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001731","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000001731","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The high prevalence of hearing difficulty among older adults has been associated with an increased risk of mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety symptoms. This study aimed to investigate the inter-relationships between depression and anxiety symptoms among older adults with and without hearing difficulty.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Network analysis was used to reveal the central symptoms exerting the most influence on other symptoms and bridge symptoms connecting two distinct symptoms between depression and anxiety symptoms, and the Bayesian network was used to identify activating symptoms affecting specific downstream symptoms.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 4096 participants with hearing difficulty and 8150 without hearing difficulty were included. Network analysis revealed the primary central symptoms including \"uncontrollable worry [GAD2],\" \"trouble relaxing [GAD4],\" \"nervousness or anxiety [GAD1],\" and \"felt sadness [CESD3]\" for the hearing difficulty group and GAD2, GAD4, CESD3, and GAD1 for the no hearing difficulty group. The Bayesian network confirmed that GAD4 and CESD3 were activating symptoms in the hearing difficulty group, while GAD2 served as an activating symptom in the no hearing difficulty group.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The findings suggested that targeting the activating symptoms of \"trouble relaxing\" and \"felt sadness\" could help alleviate the comorbidity between depression and anxiety symptoms. Addressing the specific-bridge symptom of \"felt fearful\" linking depression and anxiety symptoms might also have a cascading effect on improving both mental health conditions among older adults with hearing difficulty.</p>","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145031138","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":"Dynamics in the Transimpedance Matrix and Electrically Evoked Compound Action Potentials in Cochlear Implant Users With a Lateral-Wall Electrode Array.","authors":"Topi Jutila, Saku T Sinkkonen, Samuel Söderqvist, Ville Sivonen","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001729","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000001729","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>In patients with cochlear implants, tools for measuring intracochlear electric environment as well as neural responses to electrical stimulation are widely available. This study aimed to investigate the possible correlation of changes in the responsiveness of the auditory nerve measured by neural response telemetry with changes in the peak and spread of the intracochlear electric field measured by transimpedance matrix (TIM) in patients implanted with straight electrode arrays.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>In this retrospective study, we analyzed a cohort of 144 ears of 113 consecutive patients who were implanted with Slim Straight electrode array (Cochlear Ltd.) between January 2019 and May 2022. Thirty-four ears of 30 patients had both intra- and postoperative data available for TIM and neural response telemetry thresholds (T-NRT). The postoperative measurements for TIM and T-NRT took place on average 101 (median: 42; range: 22 to 709) and 126 (median: 62; range: 23 to 427) days postoperatively, respectively. In addition, clinical electrode impedances were measured intraoperatively at two time points in 123 ears and postoperatively during all programming visits.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Electrode impedances gradually increased over time after the onset of the cochlear implant use, and this was more pronounced in the basal part of the electrode array (p < 0.001). Postoperative T-NRTs decreased significantly from the intraoperative measurement (p < 0.001). Postoperative T-NRT between different time points increased slightly in the apical section (p = 0.03) but remained stable in the middle and basal sections of the electrode array. Postoperative intracochlear electric field spread narrowed significantly in the middle section (p = 0.001), and electric field peak value increased significantly in the basal section (p = 0.003) compared to intraoperative values. The increased electric field peak value and the decreased T-NRT between intra- and postoperative measures in the basal section of the electrode array had a significant negative correlation (ρ = -0.42, p = 0.02).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>A novel finding of this study was that the increased postoperative peakedness of the intracochlear electric field was correlated with the increased responsiveness of the auditory nerve in the basal section of the electrode array. The narrower and more peaked intracochlear electric field may be due to fibrous tissue formation around the electrode array. Aligned with the onset of electrical stimulation and the general time course of intracochlear fibrous tissue formation after cochlear implant surgery, a long-term increase in electrode impedances was found, which was more pronounced in the basal section of the array.</p>","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145031159","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":"Subtle Peripheral Auditory Dysfunction in Patients With Listening Difficulties.","authors":"Teppei Noda, Kazuki Nishida, Basile Chretien, Keiko Fukui, Tomoko Tabuki, Haruka Kubota, Takeshi Matsunaga, Yoshie Higashino, Kazuha Ishikawa, Noritaka Komune, Nozomu Matsumoto, Takashi Nakagawa","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001732","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000001732","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This study aimed to investigate the potential contribution of subtle peripheral auditory dysfunction to listening difficulties (LiD) using a threshold-equalizing noise (TEN) test and distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE). We hypothesized that a subset of patients with LiD have undetectable peripheral auditory dysfunction.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>This case-control study included 61 patients (12 to 53 years old; male/female, 18/43) in the LiD group and 22 volunteers (12 to 59 years old; male/female, 10/12) in the control group. The participants were selected based on normal hearing thresholds (<25 dB for an average of 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz) and speech-recognition scores of 90% for monosyllabic words. The test battery consisted of pure-tone audiometry, speech-recognition tests, DPOAE testing, and the TEN test. For the TEN test, the difference between the detection threshold and TEN level was calculated as the signal-to-TEN ratio (STR).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The LiD group showed significantly higher STR values across all tested frequencies. A cutoff value of 1.143 for the average STR across seven frequencies yielded an odds ratio of 3.599 with 69.7% sensitivity and 88.6% specificity. DPOAE revealed significantly lower distortion-product levels and signal to noise ratios for the LiD group, especially at 6 kHz. Among the patients with LiD, 80.0%, 71.4%, and 57.2% had positive results for the TEN test, DPOAE, and both, respectively. All participants in the control group, except one 59-year-old, had negative results for the TEN and DPOAE tests.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The study findings suggest that subtle peripheral auditory dysfunction, which is undetected by standard audiometry, may contribute to LiD symptoms in some patients. The combination of TEN test results, DPOAE findings, and developmental disorder status may simplify the diagnosis of LiD. This approach may be efficient for screening and may reduce the duration of evaluation relative to the more complex methods currently in use. However, further multicenter studies are required to validate these findings and refine the diagnostic approach for LiD.</p>","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145014484","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":"No Association Between Vocal Emotion Recognition and Subjective Parental Reporting of Alexithymia in School-Age Children With Hearing Aids.","authors":"Başak Özkişi Yazgan, Laura Rachman, Gizem Babaoğlu, Pinar Ertürk, Etienne Gaudrain, Leanne Nagels, Stefan Launer, Peter Derleth, Gurjit Singh, Frédérick Uhlemayr, Esra Yücel, Gonca Sennaroğlu, Deniz Başkent","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001712","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000001712","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Objectives: &lt;/strong&gt;Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing one's own emotions. Alexithymia has previously been associated with deficits in the processing of emotional information at both behavioral and neurobiological levels, and some studies have shown elevated levels of alexithymic traits in adults with hearing loss. This explorative study investigated alexithymia in young and adolescent school-age children with hearing aids in relation to (1) a sample of age-matched children with normal hearing, (2) age, (3) hearing thresholds, and (4) vocal emotion recognition.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Design: &lt;/strong&gt;A translated-to-Turkish version of the Children's Alexithymia Measure (CAM), where higher scores indicate higher levels of alexithymic traits, was filled in by the parents of 37 children (5.5 to 17.8 yr) with bilateral hearing aids and 37 children (5.1 to 18.3 yr) with normal hearing, all native speakers of Turkish. Vocal emotion recognition scores, assessed using the psychophysical vocal emotion recognition test for hearing-impaired populations (EmoHI), were available from a previous study for the group with hearing aids. This test uses non-language-specific pseudospeech sentence recordings expressing three basic emotions: angry, happy, and sad.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results: &lt;/strong&gt;Parent-reported CAM scores of children with normal hearing (mean = 7.19 ± 6.61) and children with hearing aids (mean = 8.59 ± 4.38) were within the range previously reported for neurotypical children. Group-level comparison showed no statistically significant difference in CAM scores. However, when considering age, CAM scores of children with normal hearing increased as a function of age, while CAM scores of children with hearing aids were not affected by age. Furthermore, for the youngest children up to 8.8 yr, children with hearing aids had significantly higher CAM scores than children with normal hearing. In children with hearing aids, neither unaided nor aided pure-tone audiometric thresholds were significant predictors for CAM scores. Furthermore, the CAM scores and EmoHI scores were not significantly correlated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusions: &lt;/strong&gt;Although the developmental patterns of parent-reported alexithymia scores as a function of age differed between the sample of children with hearing aids and the sample of children with normal hearing, the group difference was observed only for the youngest participants (&lt;8.8 yr). When collapsed across the full age range, there was no group effect, and for both groups, the parent-reported alexithymia scores were within the ranges previously reported in neurotypical children. For the children with hearing aids, unaided and aided hearing thresholds did not have a predictive value for parent-reported alexithymia scores and there was no significant correlation between the CAM and EmoHI scores. These findings together indicate no elevated levels of alexithymic traits in children with hearing","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145014446","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":"Age Effects of Bone Conduction Vibration Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials (VEMPs) Using B81 and Impulse Hammer Stimuli: Erratum.","authors":"Jessie N Patterson, Amanda I Rodriguez, Katherine R Gordon, Julie A Honaker, Kristen L Janky","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001735","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000001735","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145002036","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":"Effect of Attitudes Toward Hearing Loss and Hearing Aids on the Risk of Device Abandonment Among Older Adults With Hearing Loss Fitted in the Chilean Public Health Sector.","authors":"Eduardo Fuentes-López, Javier Galaz-Mella, Carrie L Nieman, Manuel Luna-Monsalve, Anthony Marcotti","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001669","DOIUrl":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001669","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Objectives: &lt;/strong&gt;The World Health Organization estimates that 25% of older adults worldwide have disabling hearing loss. Although hearing aids are the conventional management strategy for this condition, the rate of abandonment of these devices is high. Complete abandonment of the device can expose individuals to the negative consequences of untreated hearing loss. Although previous studies have examined the effect of attitudes on hearing aid abandonment, they have not investigated the time over which abandonment occurs. Consequently, previous evidence has not explored whether attitudes toward hearing loss and hearing aids are associated with the speed (i.e., hazard) at which individuals abandon their hearing aids over time. Our primary objective was to determine the effect of attitudes toward hearing loss and hearing aids on both the risk and timing of hearing aid abandonment. A secondary objective was to assess the potential effect of attitudes toward hearing loss and hearing aids on changes in social participation and withdrawal from social activities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Design: &lt;/strong&gt;We conducted a retrospective cohort study involving 355 patients who received hearing aids from a Chilean public hospital. Device abandonment over time was assessed by asking the patients about the specific month of hearing aid abandonment. Attitudes toward hearing loss and hearing aids were measured using the Spanish version of the Attitudes towards Loss of Hearing Questionnaire (S-ALHQ), while changes in participation and withdrawal from social activities were assessed using the Glasgow Benefit Inventory questionnaire. Univariate and multivariate flexible parametric models were developed to estimate the hazard ratio of hearing aid abandonment over time, with attitudes toward hearing loss and hearing aids as the primary predictors. Furthermore, multivariate multinomial regression models were constructed to evaluate the relationship between attitudes and changes or withdrawal from social activities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results: &lt;/strong&gt;The cumulative incidence of hearing aid abandonment was approximately 21%. The median score on the S-ALHQ was 2.45 points (25th to 75th percentile: 2.05 to 2.77). In the flexible parametric survival models, for each average point increase on the S-ALHQ questionnaire, there was a twofold increase in the risk of hearing aid abandonment over time (Hazard Ratio = 2.09; 95% Confidence Interval = 1.30 to 3.40). In addition, an association was found between attitudes and withdrawal from social activities, with a 5.5-fold increase in the risk ratio for withdrawal from social activities (Relative-Risk Ratio = 5.53; 95% Confidence Interval = 1.49 to 20.56).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusions: &lt;/strong&gt;More negative attitudes toward hearing loss and hearing aids were associated with an increased risk of hearing aid abandonment over time, and an increased risk of withdrawal from social activities. Thus, attitudes toward hearing loss and hearing","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":"1317-1328"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144053169","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":"Early Markers of Sensorineural Hearing Loss After Platinum-Based Chemotherapy.","authors":"Heleen Van Der Biest, Sarineh Keshishzadeh, Hannah Keppler, Eline Naert, Sylvie Rottey, Ingeborg Dhooge, Sarah Verhulst","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001714","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000001714","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Objectives: &lt;/strong&gt;Platinum-based chemotherapy, cisplatin as well as carboplatin, can cause ototoxicity, which refers to drug-related damage affecting inner ear structures. At present, most ototoxicity monitoring programs rely on pure-tone audiometry, which is inadequate for detecting early outer hair cell (OHC) damage. Recent animal studies have shown that platinum derivatives can damage auditory nerve fibers (ANF), leading to cochlear synaptopathy (CS). The envelope-following response (EFR) is shown to be a noninvasive marker of CS. This study aims to assess the impact of platinum derivatives on auditory outcomes, including noninvasive EEG measurements for detecting CS.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Design: &lt;/strong&gt;Thirty-seven patients, divided into two subgroups (cisplatin group and carboplatin group), underwent a baseline hearing assessment before the chemotherapy and a follow-up evaluation approximately 2 to 10 mo post-treatment. The test battery included audiometry at conventional and extended high frequencies (EHFs), distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs), and supra-threshold auditory evoked potentials (AEPs), that is, auditory brainstem response (ABR) and EFRs. Paired-samples t tests were used to evaluate the difference between baseline and follow-up, and regression analyses determined the impact of the cumulative dose and baseline hearing status on changes in hearing outcomes and EFR magnitude. The 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were applied to assess individual significant differences between baseline and follow-up.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results: &lt;/strong&gt;Paired sample t tests revealed a significant (p &lt; 0.05) audiometric threshold shift at 8.0 kHz for the cisplatin subgroup and at 10.0 and 12.5 kHz for the carboplatin subgroup. A regression analysis confirmed that the cumulative chemotherapy dose significantly contributed to deteriorated hearing thresholds. For the total group, a significant difference in DP amplitude was determined between baseline and follow-up at 6.0 kHz. No significant differences were established between baseline and follow-up ABR parameters for the total group or for the two subgroups separately. A paired samples t test showed a significant decrease in the EFR magnitude between baseline and follow-up for the total group as well as for the cisplatin subgroup, but not for the carboplatin subgroup. Two patients receiving cisplatin presented a significant individual decline in EFR magnitude. A regression analysis confirmed that after chemotherapy, patients with the largest EFR magnitudes at baseline presented the largest EFR reductions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusions: &lt;/strong&gt;This study underscores the need for audiometric monitoring, including EHFs as well as ototoxicity grading systems. Furthermore, our results confirm that EFR magnitude may represent a valuable noninvasive marker of CS caused by platinum-based chemotherapy. A decline in EFR magnitude was observed before the onset of subjective complaints or sign","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144979505","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":"Assessing Language Skills as a Predictor of Children's Listening Difficulties: Validation and Reference Data on a New Auditory Language Task.","authors":"Xuehan Zhou, Harvey Dillon, Dani Tomlin, Kelly Burgoyne, Helen Gurteen, Grace Nixon, Alisha Isaac Gudkar, Antje Heinrich","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001715","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000001715","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Some children experience greater listening difficulties in noisy and reverberant environments than their peers, despite having normal peripheral hearing. In these cases, other potential causes have to be explored. One is a language disorder. Testing this possibility in audiology requires a language screening test that can be used by audiologists. This study aims to establish reference data for a screening test, the auditory cloze test (AudiCloze), to examine sex differences and to validate the results by comparing them with the standardized Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Fifth Edition (CELF-5) sentences recall test. Finally, the study examines the relationship between children's language skills-a composite of the new auditory cloze test and sentences recall-and their abilities to listen in noise and reverberation within a representative sample.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>The study included 125 primary school children aged 6 to 11 (76 females and 49 males) with normal hearing, all of whom completed the AudiCloze test. In addition, 55 of these children completed the CELF-5 sentence recall test, and 85 children completed a listening test designed to assess sentence intelligibility in a noisy and reverberant condition, the Test of Listening Difficulties-Universal.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>No sex differences were observed in the AudiCloze performance. A significant positive correlation was identified between age-adjusted AudiCloze and standardized CELF-5 sentence recall scores (r = 0.63, p < 0.001). In addition, children's performance on sentence intelligibility in noise and reverberation using the Test of Listening Difficulties-Universal was significantly predicted by their language skills composite variable (β = 0.76, p < 0.001).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>AudiCloze is the first validated language assessment tool specifically developed for audiologists to assess children as young as six years old to use their knowledge of language when listening in acoustically challenging situations. Language skills are crucial for children's sentence intelligibility in noise and reverberation. Being able to detect language deficits in children referred for an auditory processing assessment should facilitate referral of children who need specialist language assessment and intervention and hence improve outcomes for these children.</p>","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144979541","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":"Electrocochleography Latency: Correlation With Electrode Position During Cochlear Implantation.","authors":"Raphael R Andonie, Wilhelm Wimmer, Reto A Wildhaber, Georgios Mantokoudis, Marco Caversaccio, Stefan Weder","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001652","DOIUrl":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001652","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Cochlear implant (CI) candidates increasingly exhibit some degree of residual hearing, which should be preserved despite the implantation. Today, cochlear health is monitored during CI surgery by tracking the cochlear microphonic (CM) amplitude from intracochlear electrocochleography (ECochG) measurements. However, recent studies indicate that the insertion depth of the measuring electrode must be considered to accurately interpret these signals. The acoustic path from the cochlear base to the apex induces excitation delays in deeper regions, which should be reflected in the CM measurements. In this study, we analyzed the potential of cochlear microphonic latency (CML) as an objective method for continuously tracking CI electrode position during cochlear implantation. In addition, we examined whether CML can be associated with residual hearing.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>We recorded intraoperative pure-tone ECochG at maximum stimulation levels from 30 CI patients to derive CML. During CI electrode insertion, ECochG was continuously recorded at the 2 stimulation frequencies of 0.5 and 0.75 kHz. After complete insertion, ECochG was measured on all evenly numbered electrodes at frequencies of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1 kHz. The electrode locations (i.e., linear insertion depth) were identified by postoperative computed tomography (CT) scans. The location of the measuring electrode during the insertion period was then calculated backward, assuming a constant insertion speed. Finally, we used a linear regression model to relate CML to linear insertion depth. In addition, we evaluated the relationship between CML and preoperative residual hearing.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>CML is significantly correlated to the linear insertion depth ( p < 0.001) during and after electrode insertion (with restrictions on 0.25 kHz stimulus, presumably since the characteristic 0.25 kHz region is not within reach of the used CI electrode arrays). Despite high inter-individual variability, our results align with documented delays in the basilar membrane observed in other studies. However, we could not identify a significant association between CML and residual hearing.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our study demonstrates that objectively extracted CML encodes the intracochlear electrode location in CI patients but is not directly linked to residual hearing. Consequently, CML has the potential to enhance intraoperative ECochG analysis by providing real-time tracking of electrode position. To better understand the inter-individual variations in CML, future studies with larger patient cohorts are needed.</p>","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":"1130-1140"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12352560/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143506118","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}