Meet Jonathan Lamberton, New York's New Favorite ASL Interpreter

Jonathan Lamberton, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s sign language interpreter, is getting a blizzard of attention for his highly animated ways that were on full display during recent weather briefings.

Mr. Lamberton, 38, is deaf, a relative rarity in his profession, and he uses an innovative form of interpreting that can be easier for some hearing-impaired people to understand.

One School's Mission to Help Deaf Children 'Hear'

The Cooper Union in New York City is combining engineering and acoustics to create a unique learning environment for deaf and hearing-impaired schoolchildren. 

The college has installed an interactive light studio at the American Sign Language and English Lower School in New York City.  Equipped with a wall-mounted digital-projection system and specially designed computer programs, the studio enables the children to visualize sound, and further, uniquely understand and experience it.

Deaf People 'Feel Touch' With Hearing Part of Brain

The brain is capable of rewiring itself in extraordinary ways.  Individuals who are born deaf use the "hearing" part of their brain, the auditory cortex, to process both touch and visual stimuli.

"If scientists could measure how much the auditory cortex has been hijacked for other sensory processing, they might be able to figure out how to retrain the brain to devote more capacity to auditory processing instead."

Read more here.

The Link Between Hearing Loss and Dementia

A new study has found that people who experience significant hearing loss as they age may also be at higher risk of developing dementia.

“By the year 2050, 1 in 30 Americans are predicted to suffer from dementia, so we’re hoping this new research will help in developing interventions,” says Dr. Frank Lin, an assistant professor of otolaryngology and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins, who directed the study.

An Eerie Eye-Opener, a Must-See - The Tribe

Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy has defied conventional film making in his uniquely gripping and brilliant film, "The Tribe."  A historical debut of an entirely silent film, The Tribe serves as a potent cocktail of a spell-binding premise, disturbing minutiae, and layers of extraordinary depth.  This film is sure to move you, shake you, and engulf you in rumination.

An eerie eye-opener, a must-see. 

 

 

 

NHS Accused of ‘Cruel’ Rationing of Hearing Aids

Campaigners are accusing the NHS of imposing “cruel” cuts on people who are going deaf by denying them the hearing aids they need. Due to financial challenges, growing numbers of NHS organizations are planning to ration access to the devices, even though they help to combat dementia, depression and social isolation among the hard of hearing.

“To deny somebody the right to a good quality of life – the opportunity to be an active member of the community, interact with family and friends, or even to continue working – is akin to saying to someone, ‘I can make your life better by giving you hearing aids but I’m not going to’. It’s wrong, it’s cruel,” said Louise Hart, of Action on Hearing Loss.

Announcing 2014 Capita Foundation Auditory Research (CFAR) Grant Award Recipients

 

Didier A Depireux, Ph.D.

     

Inst. for Systems Research   
School of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park 

http://theearlab.org

 

Project Title:  “Optimizing delivery of drugs to the middle ear without tympanostomy”

Over the years, my research has focused on the sense of hearing, in sickness and in health. In particular, after developing a rat model of noise-induced tinnitus, I was struck by the lack of methods to deliver drugs to the ear only, bypassing the severe side-effects of most (for instance, oral) treatments. Over the last several years, we have developed a magnetically assisted drug delivery method using biocompatible drug-eluting nanoparticles which allows us to deliver therapeutic drug levels in the cochlea only. More recently, we realized that this method could be used to deliver antibiotics and other drugs from the ear canal to the middle ear, without the need for tympanostomy tubes. 

 

Our long-term goal is to improve and transform the treatment of ear infections by delivering medications into the middle ear with nanoparticles magnetically pushed through the tympanic membrane which remains intact. Ear infections are the leading cause of visits to pediatricians. In the US, there are ~15 million cases/yr of acute ear infections in children less than 5 years of age. About 20% of these children will progress to chronic ear infections with effusion of fluids in the middle ear. Tympanostomy tube placement under general anesthesia for the treatment of recurrent or chronic ear infections is the most common pediatric surgery requiring anesthesia in the US. This crucial Capita foundation grant will allow us to obtain the preliminary data necessary to establish the validity of the method and some optimal parameters for maximal drug delivery.

 

Jason A. Beyea, M.D., Ph.D., FRCSC
 

Ohio State University Eye and Ear Institute

Project Title: “Cochlear Hair Cell Regeneration using Adipose Stem Cells in NIHL.”
This research seeks to use a novel source of stem cells, adipose-derived stem cells, to regenerate lost cochlear hair cells in an attempt to improve hearing in a chinchilla model of noise-induced hearing loss.