Hearing Health Blog
I currently work with a mouse model with hearing fluctuation and have a clinical protocol that is performing deep phenotyping of patients with hearing instability, including patients with Ménière’s disease.
The road to more effective, less invasive, and faster developing treatments for tinnitus and loudness hyperacusis lies in focusing on the brain and not the ear.
This suggests that birds maintain a precise program for hair cell regeneration that preserves frequency-specific nerve connections, which is an important aspect of proper functional recovery.
Of relevance to hyperacusis, prior noise-induced hearing loss leads to the generation of prolonged and repetitive activity in type II neurons and surrounding tissues. This aberrant signaling may be the basis for the sensitivity to everyday sounds seen in hyperacusis.
These findings suggest that the auditory cortex may transmit significant non-auditory signals relevant for learning-related plasticity.
