Hearing Loss News and Research

Latest Hearing Loss News and Research

Significant new research centre - the Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre

The centre, based at the UCL (University College London) Department of Human Communication Science, will see ESRC inject £4.5 million over an initial 5 year period into a study of deafness, linguistic systems and communication that will run over a 10 year programme.

10 Oct 2005

New centre to advance child health research

The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Institute of Child Health (ICH) at UCL (University College London) have announced a partnership to establish a centre for research to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases affecting children's health, and to promote their health and well-being.

27 Sep 2005

Vaccine against group B streptococcus

Common bacteria that live harmlessly in the gastrointestinal tract and vagina of 25 percent of women can become lethal if a newborn gets exposed to them during birth.

20 Sep 2005

Research could improve clinical care, help educate women on premature birth

A March of Dimes expert panel has recommended a targeted research agenda designed improve the lives of thousands of babies by preventing premature birth. The agenda has been published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

20 Sep 2005

Salicylate an active metabolite of aspirin - weakens lipid membranes

It's well known that high doses of aspirin can cause ulcers and temporary deafness, but the biochemical mechanism responsible for these phenomena has never been deciphered.

19 Sep 2005

Finding may significantly broaden understanding of how the brain selects and retains information

By examining how sounds are registered during the process of learning, UC Irvine neurobiologists have discovered a neural coding mechanism that the brain relies upon to register the intensity of memories based on the importance of the experience.

12 Sep 2005

HOXA1 is a gene that's been looking for a disorder for a long time

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston, who specialize in studying the genetics of rare eye-movement disorders, have found a rare genetic syndrome whose implications go far beyond the eye, raising intriguing questions about human cardiovascular and brain development.

12 Sep 2005

Single molecular anchor holds the key to treating many types of bacterial meningitis

By blocking the molecule's anchoring ability, researchers may be able to find a way to stave off the most common serious infection of the central nervous system and a major cause of childhood death and disability. The researchers' findings appear in the September 2005 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

5 Sep 2005

Cochlear implants' performance not affected by amount of hearing loss in the implanted ear

Hearing-impaired individuals with severe to profound hearing loss and poor speech understanding who possess some residual hearing in one ear may experience significant communication benefit from a cochlear implant even if it is placed in the worse-hearing ear, a Johns Hopkins study suggests.

1 Sep 2005

Subtle effects of hearing loss on memory and cognitive function in older adults

In a new study, Brandeis University researchers conclude that older adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss may expend so much cognitive energy on hearing accurately that their ability to remember spoken language suffers as a result.

29 Aug 2005

UCI study helps identify one reason why women have lower stroke risk than men

Estrogen's role as an inhibitor of toxic-free radicals in cerebral blood vessels may be a key reason why premenopausal women have a lower stroke risk than men.

26 Aug 2005

No intervention is necessary for most children with fluid in their ears

A Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh study finds that prompt insertion of tympanostomy tubes (small ear tubes) does not improve developmental outcomes of children at 6 years of age as once thought.

24 Aug 2005

Scientists step closer to understanding the genetic pathway involved in the development of hearing

New research findings, published online in the journal Nature Genetics, detail how sensory hair cells in the ear - the cells largely responsible for hearing - develop unique shapes that enable the perception of sound.

22 Aug 2005

New hope for those deaf from immune system attack

A new study may one day help those deafened by immune system attack, and possibly also lead to a test that could show which patients may be helped by immediate steroid treatment.

16 Aug 2005

There are subtle effects of hearing loss on memory and cognitive function in older adults

13 Aug 2005

Factors inhibiting the brain's natural self-healing process identified

Factors that inhibit the brain's natural self-healing process and that may offer new insights into how to prevent brain damage in premature babies have been identified by a team of researchers supported in part by the March of Dimes.

7 Aug 2005

Hearing protein TRPA1 also involved with pain perception

The same protein that “translates” sound into nerve signals to the brain and enables individuals to hear is also required for pain perception, researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have found.

21 Jul 2005

New research leads to better infant hearing aids

The University of Western Sydney's MARCS Auditory Laboratories is leading the way with groundbreaking research, exploring the auditory abilities of infants, so hearing aids can correctly amplify the frequencies that babies need to develop communication and language skills.

21 Jul 2005

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2005

The adolescent birth rate has reached another record low, the death rate for children between ages 1 and 4 is the lowest ever, young children are more likely to receive their recommended immunizations, and fourth graders are scoring better in math, according to a yearly compendium of statistics from federal agencies concerned with children.

20 Jul 2005

Nitric oxide good for some prem babies but not for others

According to two new studies, although nitric oxide can halve the risk of developmental problems in premature babies with undeveloped lungs, the gas could be harmful to newborns who are too small and too ill.

7 Jul 2005