Hyperacusis News and Research

RSS

Hyperacusis is the term used to describe a decreased tolerance and increased sensitivity to everyday sounds that are not usually thought of as particularly loud or uncomfortable.

Chatbot therapy proves effective for tinnitus management, study finds

Study shows a chatbot delivering cognitive behavioral therapy can effectively help manage tinnitus symptoms, with telepsychologist sessions not significantly enhancing outcomes.

14 Jan 2024

Smartphone app offers relief for debilitating tinnitus

An international research team has shown that the debilitating impact of tinnitus can be effectively reduced in just weeks by a training course and sound therapy delivered via a smartphone app.

9 Jan 2024

Study focuses on the potential indirect effects of COVID-19 on tinnitus severity

Tinnitus, most often described as "ringing" in the ears even though no external sound is present, also can be perceived as humming, hissing, buzzing or roaring sounds.

2 Mar 2022

Can COVID-19 cause hearing loss, vertigo, and tinnitus?

Researchers at the University of Manchester, UK, aimed to systematically review the literature to provide evidence on SARS-CoV-2 and audio-vestibular symptoms. They found that COVID-19 has been tied to hearing loss, vertigo, and tinnitus.

26 Mar 2021

New research focuses on noise sensitivity and general fearfulness of canine behavior

Researchers in the Hannes Lohi research group in the University of Helsinki focused on two forms of canine fearfulness: noise sensitivity and general fearfulness.

24 Jan 2019

Study uncovers four neuron types in the peripheral auditory system

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified four types of neurons in the peripheral auditory system, three of which are new to science.

12 Sep 2018

Many female preschool teachers suffer from hearing-related problems

Seven out of ten female preschool teachers suffer from sound-induced auditory fatigue, one out of two has difficulty understanding speech and four out of ten become hypersensitive to sound. This is a considerably higher share than among women in general and also higher than in occupational groups exposed to noise, according to research at Sahlgrenska Academy, Sweden.

25 Jun 2018

Traditional hearing tests fail to diagnose patients with common inner ear damage

Traditional clinical hearing tests often fail to diagnose patients with a common form of inner ear damage that might otherwise be detected by more challenging behavioral tests, according to the findings of a University at Buffalo-led study published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.

20 Apr 2017

Difficulty to understand speech in noisy environments linked to hidden hearing loss in young adults

Researchers from Massachusetts Eye and Ear have, for the first time, linked symptoms of difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments with evidence of cochlear synaptopathy, a condition known as "hidden hearing loss," in college-age human subjects with normal hearing sensitivity.

3 Oct 2016

Brain's natural plasticity could compensate for inner ear damage

Researchers from Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School have described, for the first time, the adult brain's ability to compensate for a near-complete loss of auditory nerve fibers that link the ear to the brain. The findings, published in the current issue of Neuron, suggest that the brain's natural plasticity can compensate for inner ear damage to bring sound detection abilities back within normal limits; however, it does not recover speech intelligibility.

29 Jan 2016

Inner ear damage brain warnings from nerve cells

Some nerve cells in the inner ear can signal tissue damage in a way similar to pain-sensing nerve cells in the body, according to new research from Johns Hopkins.

10 Nov 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

Scientists reveal interaction between the auditory cortex and amygdala

In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience and funded by the Wellcome Trust, Newcastle University scientists reveal the interaction between the region of the brain that processes sound, the auditory cortex, and the amygdala, which is active in the processing of negative emotions when we hear unpleasant sounds.

15 Oct 2012