Younger and older adults improved at similar rates from lower levels of noise—meaning that both groups benefited equally from better listening conditions. But older adults needed a head start: They needed lower levels of background noise to reach the same accuracy.
Serotonin’s Dual Action in the Auditory Midbrain
Serotonin seems to quiet down excitatory neurons while boosting inhibitory ones. This differential modulation may help us to understand the role of serotonin in auditory disorders such as tinnitus and age-related hearing loss.
Hearing Loss From Diabetes: The ‘Silent’ Side Effect
Because the very small blood vessels in the inner ear can be narrowed by the presence of an increase in blood glucose, the function of the inner ear hair cells can be affected. The first symptom might be tinnitus or an inability to hear words clearly.
Virus-Delivered Therapy Reduces Sound Damage in the Mouse Ear
Our data showed that introducing the mutated nicotinic receptor into otherwise healthy ears can prevent, to some extent, permanent auditory damage caused by loud noise and accelerate hearing recovery.
Auditory Cue Use Changes With Age?
The results of our research suggest that individual differences in the ability to use auditory cues in noise may contribute to the range of communication challenges experienced by older adults.
Changes in the Brain with Age and Hearing Loss
A better understanding of how our brains process patterns with aging and hearing loss, and when neural responses are exaggerated versus diminished, can aid in developing treatments and devices to improve age- and hearing loss-related hearing difficulties.
Scientists Discover Repair Process That Fixes Damaged Hair Cells
The hair cells deploy a protein called XIRP2, which can sense damage to the cores that are made of a substance called actin. The researchers found that XIRP2 first senses damage, then migrates to the damage site and repairs the cores by filling in new actin.
Supporting Older Patients With Hearing Loss
Identifying age-related hearing loss issues and knowing the warning signs are important for any clinician.
Perceptual Decision-Making for Speech Recognition in Noise
Our study indicates that perceptual decision-making is engaged for difficult word recognition conditions, and that frontal cortex activity may adjust how much information is collected to benefit word recognition task performance.
Hope for Treatments Against Hearing Loss as 10 New Genes Identified
Researchers argue that the stria vascularis, a part of the cochlea in the ear, is a new target for treatments to help people with hearing loss.