Ear and Hearing最新文献

{"title":"The Relationship Between Spatial Release From Masking and Listening Effort Among Cochlear Implant Users With Single-Sided Deafness.","authors":"Lukas Suveg, Tanvi Thakkar, Emily Burg, Shelly P Godar, Daniel Lee, Ruth Y Litovsky","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001611","DOIUrl":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001611","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To examine speech intelligibility and listening effort in a group of patients with single-sided deafness (SSD) who received a cochlear implant (CI). There is limited knowledge on how effectively SSD-CI users can integrate electric and acoustic inputs to obtain spatial hearing benefits that are important for navigating everyday noisy environments. The present study examined speech intelligibility in quiet and noise simultaneously with measuring listening effort using pupillometry in individuals with SSD before, and 1 year after, CI activation. The study was designed to examine whether spatial separation between target and interfering speech leads to improved speech understanding (spatial release from masking [SRM]), and is associated with a decreased effort (spatial release from listening effort [SRE]) measured with pupil dilation (PPD).</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Eight listeners with adult-onset SSD participated in two visits: (1) pre-CI and (2) post-CI (1 year after activation). Target speech consisted of Electrical and Electronics Engineers sentences and masker speech consisted of AzBio sentences. Outcomes were measured in three target-masker configurations with the target fixed at 0° azimuth: (1) quiet, (2) co-located target/maskers, and (3) spatially separated (±90° azimuth) target/maskers. Listening effort was quantified as change in peak proportional PPD on the task relative to baseline dilation. Participants were tested in three listening modes: acoustic-only, CI-only, and SSD-CI (both ears). At visit 1, the acoustic-only mode was tested in all three target-masker configurations. At visit 2, the acoustic-only and CI-only modes were tested in quiet, and the SSD-CI listening mode was tested in all three target-masker configurations.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Speech intelligibility scores in quiet were at the ceiling for the acoustic-only mode at both visits, and in the SSD-CI listening mode at visit 2. In quiet, at visit 2, speech intelligibility scores were significantly worse in the CI-only listening modes than in all other listening modes. Comparing SSD-CI listening at visit 2 with pre-CI acoustic-only listening at visit 1, speech intelligibility scores for co-located and spatially separated configurations showed a trend toward improvement (higher scores) that was not significant. However, speech intelligibility was significantly higher in the separated compared with the co-located configuration in acoustic-only and SSD-CI listening modes, indicating SRM. PPD evoked by speech presented in quiet was significantly higher with CI-only listening at visit 2 compared with acoustic-only listening at visit 1. However, there were no significant differences between co-located and spatially separated configurations on PPD, likely due to the variability among this small group of participants. There was a negative correlation between SRM and SRE, indicating that improved speech intelligibility with spatial sep","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":"624-639"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11996618/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143451074","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":"Catch-Up Saccades in Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex Deficit: Contribution of Visual Information?","authors":"Ruben Hermann, Stefano Ramat, Silvia Colnaghi, Vincent Lagadec, Clément Desoche, Denis Pelisson, Caroline Froment Tilikete","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001616","DOIUrl":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001616","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Catch-up saccades help to compensate for loss of gaze stabilization during rapid head rotation in case of vestibular deficit. While overt saccades observed after head rotation are obviously visually guided, some of these catch-up saccades occur with shorter latency while the head is still moving, anticipating the needed final eye position. These covert saccades seem to be generated based on the integration of multisensory inputs. Vision could be one of these inputs, but the known delay for triggering visually guided saccades questions this possibility. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the potential role of visual information for controlling (triggering and guiding) the first catch-up saccades in patients suffering from bilateral vestibulopathy. To investigate this, we used head impulse test in a virtual reality setting allowing to create different visuo-vestibular mismatch conditions.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Twelve patients with bilateral vestibulopathy were recruited. We assessed in our patient group the validity of our virtual reality head impulse testing approach by comparing recorded eye and head movement to classical video head impulse test. Then, using the virtual reality system, we tested head impulse test under both normal and three visuo-vestibular mismatch conditions. In these mismatch conditions, the movement of the visual scene relative to the head movement was altered: decreased in amplitude by 50% (half), nullified (freeze), or inverted in direction (inverse). Recorded eye and head movements during these different conditions were then analyzed, more specifically the characteristics of the first catch-up saccade.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Impaired vestibulo-ocular reflex required subjects to systematically perform catch-up saccades, which could be covert or overt. The latency of the first catch-up saccade increased along with the amount of visuo-vestibular mismatch between the four conditions (i.e., from normal to half to freeze to inverse) and, consequently, the mean percentage of covert saccades decreased with increasing visual feedback error. However, the freeze and inverse conditions allowed us to reveal the existence of many saccades performed in the wrong direction relative to visual feedback. These visually discordant saccades were present in over half of the trials, they were mainly covert and their percentage was inversely correlated with residual vestibulo-ocular reflex gain.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Visual information significantly impacts catch-up saccade latency and the relative number of covert saccades during head impulse testing in vestibular deficit. However, in more than 50% of trials involving a visuo-vestibular mismatch, catch-up saccades remained directed in the compensatory direction relative to head movement, that is, they were visually discordant. Therefore, contrary to previously published proposals, visual information does not appear to b","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":"719-728"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142848518","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":"Isolated Corrective Saccades in the Bilateral Posterior Canal Stimulation During the Video Head Impulse Test: A Marker of Central Vestibulopathy?","authors":"Genoveva Hurtado, Elizabeth A Poth, Neil P Monaghan, Shaun A Nguyen, Habib G Rizk","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001617","DOIUrl":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001617","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This study aimed to determine if the presence of corrective saccades during video head impulse test (vHIT) stimulation of the bilateral posterior semicircular canals (PSCs) correlated with other vestibular test results, demographics, symptoms, or diagnoses.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>This study was a retrospective chart review where 1006 subjects' vHIT records were screened with 17 subjects meeting inclusion criteria for isolated bilateral PSC saccades.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of the 1006 patients undergoing vHIT testing, only 1.7% had isolated bilateral PSC saccades. The median age of subjects was 73 years, with a range of 61 to 85 years. Statistical significance was identified between groups with abnormal PSC vHIT gain and abnormal ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential results as well as those with 1 to 2 diagnoses.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our study confirms the rarity of isolated bilateral PSC vHIT saccades and as well as association with central vestibulopathy. Correlations with other vestibular test results, demographics, symptoms, or diagnoses may be strengthened with future large-scale studies. Further understanding of the clinical utility of isolated bilateral PSC vHIT saccades is needed. Patients with bilateral PSC vHIT abnormalities may benefit from a comprehensive neurological evaluation and consultation.</p>","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":"729-734"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142878569","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":"Behavioral Response Modeling to Resolve Listener- and Stimulus-Related Influences on Audiovisual Speech Integration in Cochlear Implant Users.","authors":"Cailey A Salagovic, Ryan A Stevenson, Blake E Butler","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001607","DOIUrl":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001607","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Objectives: &lt;/strong&gt;Speech intelligibility is supported by the sound of a talker's voice and visual cues related to articulatory movements. The relative contribution of auditory and visual cues to an integrated audiovisual percept varies depending on a listener's environment and sensory acuity. Cochlear implant users rely more on visual cues than those with acoustic hearing to help compensate for the fact that the auditory signal produced by their implant is poorly resolved relative to that of the typically developed cochlea. The relative weight placed on auditory and visual speech cues can be measured by presenting discordant cues across the two modalities and assessing the resulting percept (the McGurk effect). The current literature is mixed with regards to how cochlear implant users respond to McGurk stimuli; some studies suggest they report hearing syllables that represent a fusion of the auditory and visual cues more frequently than typical hearing controls while others report less frequent fusion. However, several of these studies compared implant users to younger control samples despite evidence that the likelihood and strength of audiovisual integration increase with age. Thus, the present study sought to clarify the impacts of hearing status and age on multisensory speech integration using a combination of behavioral analyses and response modeling.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Design: &lt;/strong&gt;Cochlear implant users (mean age = 58.9 years), age-matched controls (mean age = 61.5 years), and younger controls (mean age = 25.9 years) completed an online audiovisual speech task. Participants were shown and/or heard four different talkers producing syllables in auditory-alone, visual-alone, and incongruent audiovisual conditions. After each trial, participants reported the syllable they heard or saw from a list of four possible options.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results: &lt;/strong&gt;The younger and older control groups performed similarly in both unisensory conditions. The cochlear implant users performed significantly better than either control group in the visual-alone condition. When responding to the incongruent audiovisual trials, cochlear implant users and age-matched controls experienced significantly more fusion than younger controls. When fusion was not experienced, younger controls were more likely to report the auditorily presented syllable than either implant users or age-matched controls. Conversely, implant users were more likely to report the visually presented syllable than either age-matched controls or younger controls. Modeling of the relationship between stimuli and behavioral responses revealed that younger controls had lower disparity thresholds (i.e., were less likely to experience a fused audiovisual percept) than either the implant users or older controls, while implant users had higher levels of sensory noise (i.e., more variability in the way a given stimulus pair is perceived across multiple presentations) than age-matched controls.","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":"596-606"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142808731","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":"Impact of High- and Low-Pass Acoustic Filtering on Audiovisual Speech Redundancy and Benefit in Children.","authors":"Kaylah Lalonde, Grace Dwyer, Adam Bosen, Abby Pitts","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001622","DOIUrl":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001622","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Objectives: &lt;/strong&gt;To investigate the influence of frequency-specific audibility on audiovisual benefit in children, this study examined the impact of high- and low-pass acoustic filtering on auditory-only and audiovisual word and sentence recognition in children with typical hearing. Previous studies show that visual speech provides greater access to consonant place of articulation than other consonant features and that low-pass filtering has a strong impact on perception on acoustic consonant place of articulation. This suggests visual speech may be particularly useful when acoustic speech is low-pass filtered because it provides complementary information about consonant place of articulation. Therefore, we hypothesized that audiovisual benefit would be greater for low-pass filtered words than high-pass filtered speech. We assessed whether this pattern of results would translate to sentence recognition.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Design: &lt;/strong&gt;Children with typical hearing completed auditory-only and audiovisual tests of consonant-vowel-consonant word and sentence recognition across conditions differing in acoustic frequency content: a low-pass filtered condition in which children could only access acoustic content below 2 kHz and a high-pass filtered condition in which children could only access acoustic content above 2 kHz. They also completed a visual-only test of consonant-vowel-consonant word recognition. We analyzed word, consonant, and keyword-in-sentence recognition and consonant feature (place, voice/manner of articulation) transmission accuracy across modalities and filter conditions using binomial general linear mixed models. To assess the degree to which visual speech is complementary versus redundant with acoustic speech, we calculated the proportion of auditory-only target and response consonant pairs that we can tell apart using only visual speech and compared these values between high-pass and low-pass filter conditions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results: &lt;/strong&gt;In auditory-only conditions, recognition accuracy was lower for low-pass filtered consonants and consonant features than high-pass filtered consonants and consonant features, especially consonant place of articulation. In visual-only conditions, recognition accuracy was greater for consonant place of articulation than consonant voice/manner of articulation. In addition, auditory consonants in the low-pass filtered condition were more likely to be substituted for visually distinct consonants, meaning that there was more opportunity to use visual cues to supplement missing auditory information in the low-pass filtered condition. Audiovisual benefit for isolated whole words was greater for low-pass filtered speech than high-pass filtered speech. No difference in audiovisual benefit between filter conditions was observed for phonemes, features, or words-in-sentences. Ceiling effects limit the interpretation of these nonsignificant interactions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusions: &lt;/strong&gt;F","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":"735-746"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11996616/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142959003","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":"Effects of Age on the Bone-Conduction Amplitude-Modulated cVEMP Temporal Modulation Transfer Function.","authors":"Raghav H Jha, Erin G Piker, Christopher G Clinard","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001614","DOIUrl":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001614","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs) reflect saccular stimulation that results in an inhibitory muscle reflex recorded over the sternocleidomastoid muscle. These responses are utilized to study basic vestibular functions and are also applied clinically. Traditionally, cVEMPs have utilized transient stimuli such as clicks and tonebursts to evoke onset responses. Recently, amplitude-modulated tones have been used to elicit cVEMPs (AMcVEMPs). These AMcVEMP responses can provide information about the magnitude, phase synchrony, and nonlinearities from the vestibulo-collic reflexes that cannot be captured using other existing testing techniques. Although temporal modulation transfer functions (TMTFs) of AMcVEMPs for young, healthy adults have been established using different analysis techniques, there is currently no information regarding the effects of age on these responses. Thus, the current study aimed to examine the effects of age on AMcVEMPs across a broad range of modulation frequencies (MFs) using various AMcVEMP metrics including amplitude, signal to noise ratio (SNR), and phase coherence (PC).</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>The study included 16 (aged 20 to 39 years) young, 17 (aged 40 to 59 years) mid-age, and 16 (60 to 75 years) older adults with no history of neurological, vestibular, or middle-ear complaints. The stimuli consisted of amplitude-modulated tones with a carrier frequency of 500 Hz and 10 MFs ranging from 11 to 397 Hz. These stimuli were presented using a B81 transducer at 123 dB FL. AMcVEMPs were recorded from the sternocleidomastoid muscle (ipsilateral to the stimulating mastoid) using surface electrodes. Response analysis was performed using an FFT-based approach with analyses including amplitude, SNR, and PC.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>AMcVEMP waveforms exhibited periodicity corresponding to the stimulus MF, consistent with previous observations. Furthermore, significant age-related degradation in AMcVEMP amplitude, SNR, and PC measures were observed across a broad range of MFs. While AMcVEMPs were elicited across a wide range of MFs (11 to 263 Hz) for young adults, in mid-age and older adults, these metrics were robust only across a narrower range of MFs, resulting in a reduced TMTF. In addition, the MF eliciting the most robust AMcVEMP varied across different AMcVEMP analysis metrics and age groups.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>A significant decline in the AMcVEMP response is seen as an effect of aging; however, the effect of aging is not uniform across measures or across MFs. The TMTF of AMcVEMP gets flatter, and the overall range is reduced as an effect of aging. Results from this study enhance our understanding of age-related changes in the vestibular system. Expansion of AMcVEMP to clinical populations may lead to a deeper understanding of the pathophysiology of vestibular disorders.</p>","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":"696-706"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142900546","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":"The Impact of Early Childhood Otitis Media on Hearing Abilities: A Scoping Review.","authors":"Lindsey Van Yper, Christian Brandt, Malene Korsholm, Christian Godballe, Jesper Hvass Schmidt, Tobias Neher","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001628","DOIUrl":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001628","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Otitis media (OM) is among the most common childhood diseases. Many studies have suggested that recurrent OM episodes during early childhood can have long-lasting adverse effects on essentially every level of the auditory system. However, the literature on this topic is heterogeneous and results are mixed. Hence, a need exists to structure the available evidence. Here, a scoping review was conducted, aiming to (1) map the many different outcome measures used to assess the long-term impact of OM, (2) appraise the quality of the available OM documentation, and (3) provide a summary of the available evidence and its potential link with OM documentation.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Original articles were identified through systematic searches in the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases. To be included, studies were required to assess the long-term impact of resolved early childhood OM on hearing abilities. Two reviewers independently screened studies for inclusion. A data charting form, developed by author LVY, was used to extract information about the publication (year, journal, country of data collection) and study characteristics (sample size, outcome measures, OM documentation).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The search identified 16,267 records, out of which 94 articles were included. Most of the current evidence is based on retrospective data from high-income countries, using a wide range of outcome measures. The retrospective study design poses challenges for thorough OM documentation, especially regarding OM history of the controls. A narrative synthesis showed consistently elevated audiometric thresholds in the extended high-frequency range and poorer gap detection abilities in children with a history of early childhood OM. Mixed results were found in terms of speech perception and binaural unmasking.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This scoping review demonstrates the breadth of the literature on this topic. A wide range of outcome measures have been used, and the quality of OM documentation varies greatly across studies. Variability of the literature results may-at least to some extent-be explained by inadequate OM documentation, recruitment bias, and variability in the time since the last OM episode. Recommendations for future research are provided.</p>","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":"571-584"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143574724","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":"Extended High-Frequency Audiometry Using the Wireless Automated Hearing Test System Compared to Manual Audiometry in Children and Adolescents.","authors":"Chelsea M Blankenship, Lindsey M Hickson, Tera Quigley, Erik Larsen, Li Lin, Lisa L Hunter","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001621","DOIUrl":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001621","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Valid wireless automated Békésy-like audiometry (ABA) outside a sound booth that includes extended high frequencies (EHF) would increase access to monitoring programs for individuals at risk for hearing loss, particularly those at risk for ototoxicity. The purpose of the study was to compare thresholds obtained with (1) manual audiometry using an Interacoustics Equinox and modified Hughson-Westlake 5 dB threshold technique to automated audiometry using the Wireless Automated Hearing Test System (WAHTS) and a Békésy-like 2 dB threshold technique inside a sound booth, and (2) ABA measured in the sound booth to ABA measured outside the sound booth.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Cross-sectional study including 28 typically developing children and adolescents (mean = 14.5 years; range = 10 to 18 years). Audiometric thresholds were measured from 0.25 to 16 kHz with manual audiometry inside the sound booth and with ABA measured both inside and outside the sound booth in counterbalanced order.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>ABA thresholds measured inside the sound booth were overall about 5 dB better compared with manual thresholds in the conventional frequencies (0.25 to 8 kHz). In the EHFs (10 to 16 kHz), a larger threshold difference was observed, where ABA thresholds were overall about 14 dB better compared with manual thresholds. The majority of ABA thresholds measured outside the sound booth were within ±10 dB of ABA thresholds measured inside the sound booth (conventional: 86%; EHF: 80%). However, only 69% of ABA thresholds measured inside the sound booth were within ±10 dB of manual thresholds in the conventional frequencies and only 32% of ABA thresholds measured inside the sound booth were within ±10 dB of manual thresholds in the EHFs.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These results indicate that WAHTS ABA results in better thresholds in conventional frequencies than manual audiometry in children and adolescents, consistent with previous studies in adults. Hearing thresholds for the EHF were better when measured with WAHTS ABA compared with manual audiometry, likely due to different transducer-related calibration values that are not age-adjusted. Additional studies of WAHTS automated Békésy-like EHF thresholds that include healthy pediatric participants are needed to establish age-appropriate normative thresholds for clinical application in monitoring programs for noise-induced hearing loss and/or ototoxicity.</p>","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":"782-795"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11996617/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142900550","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 Benefits of Hearing Aids for Adults: A Systematic Umbrella Review.","authors":"Diana Tang, Yvonne Tran, Rebecca J Bennett, Charles Lo, Jien Nien Lee, Jessica Turner, Bamini Gopinath","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001620","DOIUrl":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001620","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This umbrella review aims to summarize the major benefits of hearing aid usage in adults by synthesizing findings from published review articles.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>A comprehensive search of databases, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar, was conducted. The search was limited to English-language review articles published between 1990 and 2023, focusing on hearing aid outcomes in at least 5 adults (aged ≥18 years). Two researchers independently screened titles, abstracts, and full-text articles, and conducted a quality assessment using the Joanna Briggs Checklist for Systematic Reviews and Research Syntheses. A third researcher was involved in discussions with the 2 researchers to resolve conflicts during the screening and quality assessment stages.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Eleven articles were included in this review. There were three systematic reviews with meta-analysis and eight systematic reviews without meta-analysis. The quality assessment indicated that articles scored between 6 and 11 out of a total of 11 criteria. Three articles met all quality criteria. Study participants tended to be middle-aged (≥40 years) or older adults (≥65 years). Participant gender was less clear as this was not consistently reported but appeared to favor men. This umbrella review found that speech perception, communication function, hearing handicap, and self-assessed hearing aid benefit were consistently positively associated with hearing aid use in the analysis of included studies. Hearing handicap was the most frequently reported outcome with evidence from four different studies supporting its mitigation with hearing aid use. There was insufficient evidence in terms of benefit on balance, cognitive function, depression, tinnitus, loneliness, and social isolation. There was conflicting evidence on the impact of hearing aid use on quality of life. Among eligible studies, there were no reports of negative impacts of hearing aid use.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>There are a number of potential benefits associated with hearing aid use. However, this review found that there was a clear lack of high-quality evidence and limited use of robust study design to support the benefits of hearing aids on other outcomes such as quality of life and cognition. Inconsistent use and interpretation of various outcome measures makes it difficult to produce homogenous data which is needed to make more conclusive statements about the benefits of hearing aids.</p>","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":"563-570"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143030433","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":"Sleep-Associated Traits and Hearing Difficulties in Noise: A Bidirectional Mendelian Randomization Study.","authors":"Chunyan Liu, Xiaonan Wu, Jin Li, Shan Song, Jing Guan, Qiuju Wang","doi":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001625","DOIUrl":"10.1097/AUD.0000000000001625","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>The aim of this study was to investigate the causal relationships between sleep-associated traits and hearing difficulties in noise (HDinN) by Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with chronotype, insomnia, sleep duration, daytime dozing or sleeping, and ease of getting up in the morning were extracted from European population genome-wide association study pooled data for bidirectional MR analysis. The MR-Egger regression, the inverse variance weighted technique, and the weighted median method were used for data analysis. The study was then expanded to include South Asian, East Asian, African, and Greater Middle Eastern populations.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>MR analysis indicated that in European populations, ease of getting up in the morning is a protective factor for HDinN (odds ratio [OR] = 0.932, p = 4.22 × 10 -5 , pFDR = 5.62 × 10 -4 ), while shorter sleep duration was a risk factor (undersleepers: OR = 1.164, p = 0.002, pFDR = 0.014). In addition, there was an indicative causal association between daytime dozing and HDinN (OR = 1.089, p = 0.046, pFDR = 0.123). The conclusions were consistent in African populations (ease of getting up: OR = 0.696, p = 0.012, pFDR = 0.041, sleep duration: OR = 0.677, p = 0.032 pFDR = 0.091, daytime dozing: OR = 1.164, p = 0.002, pFDR = 0.014). In the reverse direction, there was a significant causal association between HDinN and both chronotype (OR = 1.413, p = 0.011, pFDR = 0.042) and ease of getting up in the morning (OR = 0.668, p = 1.75 × 10 -5 , pFDR = 3.49 × 10 -4 ) in European populations, with similar conclusions respectively reached in East Asian (OR = 1.085, p = 0.010, pFDR = 0.045) and African populations (OR = 0.936, p = 0.002, pFDR = 0.012). Furthermore, although not observed in European populations, exploratory studies in non-European populations suggested a potential association between insomnia and HDinN (East Asian: OR = 1.920, p = 0.011, pFDR = 0.043, African: OR = 2.080, p = 0.004, pFDR = 0.019, South Asian: OR = 1.981, p = 1.59 × 10 -4 , PFDR = 0.002, Greater Middle Eastern: OR = 2.394, p = 0.002, pFDR = 0.012), and vice versa (Greater Middle Eastern: OR = 1.056, p = 0.014, pFDR = 0.044).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study identified a potential bidirectional causal relationship between sleep-associated traits and HDinN. However, the underlying mechanisms of the causal relationships reported here have yet to be elucidated.</p>","PeriodicalId":55172,"journal":{"name":"Ear and Hearing","volume":" ","pages":"817-826"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11984542/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143016833","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}