Deafness News and Research

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Brief exposure to sudden sounds or mild trauma can form long-term memories

Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have found how even brief exposure to sudden sounds or mild trauma can form permanent, long-term brain connections, or memories, in a specific region of the brain. Moreover, the research team, working with rats, says it was able to chemically stimulate those biological pathways in the locus coeruleus -- the area of the brain best known for releasing the "fight or flight" hormone noradrenaline -- to heighten and improve the animals' hearing.

25 Aug 2015

PHIV children may lack immunity against measles, mumps, and rubella despite vaccination

Between one-third and one-half of individuals in the United States who were infected with HIV around the time of birth may not have sufficient immunity to ward off measles, mumps, and rubella--even though they may have been vaccinated against these diseases.

14 Aug 2015

Array Biopharma reports strong fourth quarter and full year 2015 financial results

Array BioPharma Inc. today reported results for the fourth quarter and full year of its fiscal year ended June 30, 2015.

3 Aug 2015

Researchers reconstruct ancient virus to improve gene therapy

Researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Schepens Eye Research Institute have reconstructed an ancient virus that is highly effective at delivering gene therapies to the liver, muscle, and retina. This discovery, published July 30 in Cell Reports, could potentially be used to design gene therapies that are not only safer and more potent than therapies currently available, but may also help a greater number of patients.

31 Jul 2015

Facial motion capture technology can help identify different speech disorders in children

Facial motion capture - the same technology used to develop realistic computer graphics in video games and movies - has been used to identify differences between children with childhood apraxia of speech and those with other types of speech disorders, finds a new study by NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

29 Jul 2015

People with common form of hearing loss may benefit from hybrid cochlear implant devices

People with a common form of hearing loss not helped by hearing aids achieved significant and sometimes profound improvements in their hearing and understanding of speech with hybrid cochlear implant devices, according to a new multicenter study led by specialists at NYU Langone Medical Center.

29 Jul 2015

New study to explore mechanisms responsible for taste changes following RYGB, diet-induced obesity

Currently, one of the most effective surgical methods for treating obesity is the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery, which limits the amount of food and drink that can be ingested at one time and the amount of calories and nutrients absorbed through the intestinal tract. An unintended side effect of RYGB is that it reduces the patient's taste for sweet and fatty foods—but there is no scientific explanation for why these taste changes occur.

28 Jul 2015

Genes affect person's perception of sweet taste

A new study from the Monell Center and collaborating institutions suggests that a single set of genes affects a person's perception of sweet taste, regardless of whether the sweetener is a natural sugar or a non-caloric sugar substitute.

17 Jul 2015

Research breakthrough opens door to a world of regenerative medicine for treating mitochondrial disease

A study led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., and Hong Ma, M.D., Ph.D., at the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon National Primate Research Center has revealed the first critical step in developing novel gene and stem cell therapy treatments for patients with mitochondrial disease.

16 Jul 2015

Dr. Jian-Dong Li receives $1.6 million to develop novel therapeutic targets to treat middle-ear infections

Dr. Jian-Dong Li, a professor and director of the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Inflammation and Immunity, has received a five-year, $1.6 million federal grant to develop novel anti-inflammatory therapeutics against middle-ear infections.

2 Jul 2015

Researchers map physical properties of live breast cancer cells using advanced AFM technology

Researchers who developed a high-speed form of atomic force microscopy have shown how to image the physical properties of live breast cancer cells, for the first time revealing details about how deactivation of a key protein may lead to metastasis.

30 Jun 2015

Scientists redraw traditional brain map of language comprehension

For 140 years, scientists' understanding of language comprehension in the brain came from individuals with stroke. Based on language impairments caused by stroke, scientists believed a single area of the brain -- a hotdog shaped section in the temporal lobe of the left hemisphere called Wernicke's region -- was the center of language comprehension.

25 Jun 2015

Cochlear Nucleus 6 Sound Processor approved by FDA for use with Nucleus 22 Cochlear Implant

Cochlear Limited, the global leader in implantable hearing solutions, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Cochlear™ Nucleus® 6 Sound Processor for use with the Nucleus 22 Cochlear Implant, giving those who have worn cochlear implants from the beginning (over 20 years in some cases) access to the latest breakthroughs in true wireless and automatic hearing. Released in 1985, the Nucleus 22 Implant was the first commercially available multi-channel cochlear implant in the world.

25 Jun 2015

Scientists identify safe repellent that protects fruits from D. suzukii

Insects destroy a very large fraction of the global agricultural output - nearly 40 percent. The spotted wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii), for example, feeds on ripening fruits. A nuisance especially in Northern California and Europe, it lays its eggs inside ripe berries, and, when its larvae emerge there, the fruit is destroyed.

22 Jun 2015

Researchers map out surgical anatomy, approaches for auditory brainstem implant placement

A technique called auditory brainstem implantation can restore hearing for patients who can't benefit from cochlear implants. A team of US and Japanese experts has mapped out the surgical anatomy and approaches for auditory brainstem implantation in the June issue of Operative Neurosurgery, published on behalf of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons by Wolters Kluwer.

22 May 2015

Existing anti-stroke drug can be effective in treating middle-ear infections

An existing anti-stroke drug is an effective treatment for middle-ear infections, showing the ability to suppress mucus overproduction, improve bacterial clearance and reduce hearing loss, according to researchers at Georgia State University and the University of Rochester.

21 May 2015

New research project aims to improve music listening experiences in people with hearing impairments

Beethoven composed some of his most famous works after he became profoundly deaf. More recently, musicians such as Ozzy Osbourne, Brian Wilson and Phil Collins have encountered problems with their hearing. Tinnitus affects many more, from Eric Clapton and Neil Young to will.i.am.

21 May 2015

Major breakthrough provides new insights into how tinnitus develops

Tinnitus is the most common service-related disability for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Often described as a ringing in the ears, more than 1.5 million former service members, one out of every two combat veterans, report having this sometimes debilitating condition, resulting in more than $2 billion dollars in annual disability payments by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

13 May 2015

Johns Hopkins Ophthalmology professor Bob Massof receives Helen Keller prize

Bob Massof, Ph.D., of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins received the 2015 Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research on May 5...

8 May 2015

Findings open pathway to studying bat brains to understand certain human language disorders

Researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center and American University have shown that, like humans, mustached bats use the left and right sides of their brains to process different aspects of sounds. Aside from humans, no other animal that has been studied, not even monkeys or apes, has proved to use such hemispheric specialization for sound processing -- meaning that the left brain is better at processing fast sounds, and the right processing slow ones.

27 Apr 2015