Novel hearing aids lead to bionic future of disability devices

Two brand new models of advanced hearing aids can be adjusted with exquisite precision through software built into Apple’s iPhone. They NOW allow fine-grain control over acoustic systems. “This state-of-the-art technology will give people with hearing loss the ability to outperform their normal-hearing counterparts,” said Dave Fabry, a Starkey vice president, whose company along with GN ReSound Linx developed this technology, each independently.

 Researchers from both Starkey and GN ReSound used the iPhone as a way to correct problems that had forever hampered hearing aids using a low-power version of Bluetooth wireless technology. The phone could act as a remote control, a brain, and an auxiliary microphone and it would finally let people make phone calls and listen to music without carrying a wireless device.

“I’m surprised they haven’t done this earlier — putting it all in an app, that seems so obvious these days,” said Todd Chamberlain, a 39 year-old industrial safety officer who has worn hearing aids since he was 3 years old.

original New York Times article

Sailing to Honor Capita Grant Recipients and 37th ARO MidWinter Meeting

On Monday, February 24th, a group of  Capita Foundation Auditory Research (CFAR) awardees boarded the Shine On schooner loaded with beer and tamales to sail San Diego Bay.

The best hearing researchers and scientists were in town for the 37th ARO Meeting, a conference showcasing innovative and advancing research in Otolaryngology, which took place February 22-26 in San Diego's sunshine.

A very special thanks goes out to Dockmaster Neil Wilson, of Fifth Avenue Landing, for making this event possible.

Northwestern's Claus-Peter Richter, M.D., Ph.D. led talks about decreases in  federal funding for research.  Looking to private sources as well as how to get out the good word about Capita and other private foundations were among the proposed solutions discussed.  Alyssa Wheeler, Ph.D., suggested we show the significance of all this great work in a Youtube, e.g. Boy Hears for the First Time.

Aboard the Shine On schooner

Infant Sleep Machines at Maximum Volume Reported as Hearing Risk

Sound devices used to lull infants to sleep can be loud enough at maximum volume to damage their hearing, researchers reported Monday. 

Researchers at the University of Toronto evaluated 14 popular sleep machines at maximum volume and found they produced between 68.8 to 92.9 decibels at 30 centimeters, about the distance one might be placed from an infant’s head. Three exceeded 85 decibels, the workplace safety limit for adults on an eight-hour shift for accumulated exposure (NIOSH). At 100 centimeters, all the machines tested were louder than the 50-decibel limit averaged over an hour set for hospital nurseries in 1999 by an expert panel concerned with improving newborn sleep and their speech intelligibility.

“Farther away is less dangerous, a lower volume is better and shorter durations of time, all things that deliver less sound pressure to the baby,” Dr. Papsin said. Yet some models are designed to be affixed to the crib.

A concern is whether listening to white noise can be detrimental to auditory development. A 2003 study (Science) found continuous white noise delayed development of the brain’s hearing center in newborn rats. In humans, the brain of a newborn is learning to differentiate sounds at different pitches even during sleep, said Lisa L. Hunter, scientific director of research in the division of audiology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. “If you’ve conditioned them to white noise...they might not be as responsive as they otherwise should be to soft speech,” she said.

 (original article by Catherine Saint Louis from March 3, 2014 New York Times)

When Hands Talk, Be Careful Where You Point

Written by Nina Raine, “Tribes” is a comic drama about that revolves around Billy, a young deaf man at odds with his intellectual and argumentative working-class family in London. Some posters feature American Sign Language, which is used in the show, and display different design approaches.

(original New York Times article by Erik Piepenburg)

Seeing Less Helps The Brain Hear More

A few days in the dark can improve an animal's hearing by triggering favorable changes in areas of the brain that process auditory information.

Patrick Kanold, a researcher at the University of Maryland and one of this study's authors, believes there may be a new way to help people with auditory processing disorders. His work builds on research showing that people who are blind from birth can often do remarkable things with their other senses.

In his study, mice that were kept in the dark had neurons with increased sound sensitivity and stronger connections for auditory information in their brains. A lack of input in the visual cortex seemed to be causing changes in the auditory cortex, which is astounding because there is no known direct anatomical connection between the two areas. It seems that the brain is less hard-wired that previously thought, remaining plastic into adulthood.

(Original article by Jon Hamilton; pictures by Rosanne Skirble)

2013 CFAR grant recipients

Announcing the 2013 Capita Foundation Auditory Research Grant Recipients

Alain Dabdoub, Ph.D.

University of Toronto
 

Project:  “Induction of Cochlear Neurons by Defined Transcription Factors”

Auditory neurons (AN’s) play a critical role in hearing as they transmit sound information from the inner ear to the brain and their progressive degeneration is associated with disease conditions, excessive noise and aging.  AN’s are like most neurons in the brain, they lack the ability to regenerate.  Therefore, the loss of these cells leads to permanent hearing impairment and methods for inducing neuron replacement and regeneration have yet to be fully developed.

Daniel Bendor, Ph.D.

University College London

 

Project:  “Optimizing the Encoding of Temporal Information in an Auditory Cortical Prosthetic”

James Simmons, Ph.D.

Brown University
 

Project:  “A Novel Biological Model for Protection from Noise-Induced Hearing Loss”

Bats live in close proximity to lots of other bats, and they regularly undergo prolonged exposure to intense sound at 80-110 dB SPL.  We found that big brown bats do not experience temporary or permanent threshold shifts (TTS, PTS) after exposure to intense noise at levels and durations that cause massive hearing losses in other mammals like humans, monkeys, cats, mice, and gerbils.  Can brown bats prove to be useful in providing a key to successful noise protection in humans? 

Kazuaki Homma, Ph.D.

Northwestern University

 

Project: “Investigating Prestin’s Role in Outer Hair Cell Survival”

The objective of this study is to investigate how prestin contributes to survival of outer hair cells, the outcome of which could allow development of a novel strategy to reduce hearing impairment.

 

Lina Reiss, Ph.D.

Oregon Health & Science University

 

Project:  “Effects of Changing Frequency-to-Electrode Maps on Electrode Pitch Plasticity and Discrimination with Cochlear Implants”

Our laboratory recently demonstrated that pitch perceived through a cochlear implant (CI) can change over time by as much as 2-3 octaves, and that these changes depend on how the CI is programmed.  We hypothesize that a novel method of CI programming will lead to increased pitch differences between electrodes, and that this increased pitch separation will improve both electrode discrimination and speech perception in noise.

Marc Bassim, Ph.D.
American University of Beirut – Medical Center 

Project:  “Congenital Hearing Loss in the Middle East Area: Generating Patient-Specific iPS

The purpose of this project is to model the pathological processes of Congenital Hearing Loss in vitro. This will be done through establishing iPS cells from patients with Congenital Hearing Loss belonging to a highly consanguineous population and inducing their differentiation into sensorineural cells.

Lasker Foundation Awards for Innovative Hearing Discoveries

Congratulations to Dr. Graeme M. Clark of the University of Melbourne in Australia, Dr. Ingeborg Hochmair of Med-El in Innsbruck, Austria, and Blake S. Wilson of Duke University in North Carolina for their work in developing the modern cochlear implant.  

The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation recognized these fearless scientists with awards, often termed “American Nobels”, in the category of Clinical Medical Research totaling $250,000. The scientists’ cochlear devices use electrical stimuli to bypass damaged hair cells and directly stimulate the main auditory nerve that conveys messages to the brain for processing as hearing. Hearing has been restored through their efforts, despite public skepticism along the way.



Dr. Graeme M. Clark

Dr. Ingeborg Hochmair

Blake S. Wilson