Congratulations to the 14 scientists awarded Emerging Research Grants for 2025.
Lower Frequencies Boost Ability of Older Adults to Separate Sounds
These findings mean lower-frequency sounds may help older adults better understand complex sound environments. This may be useful for designing better hearing aids or other devices to help older people hear more clearly.
Auditory Input Regulates the Real-Time Coordination of Speech Movements
Our results are consistent with the theory that people rely on auditory information to coordinate the motor control of their vocal tract in service to speech production and opens up many new, critically important questions about people with congenital auditory deficits.
Brain Responses to Voice Pitch Offer Clues to Hearing Difficulties in Children
These findings show that even with appropriate amplification via hearing aids, children with hearing loss still have trouble processing certain aspects of sound, particularly the basic pitch of voices. These objectively measurable brain responses may explain why children with hearing loss struggle more in noisy or echoey environments.
Key Findings and Next Steps
Where do we want our hair cell regeneration research to be in three years’ time, and what will it take to get us there?
HHF Voices Concerns Over Proposed NIH Reorganization Plans
HHF urges caution if structural changes to the NIH will result in the shifting of resources away from already underfunded areas of research like hearing loss and related disorders.
Balancing Noise Reduction With Speech Perception in Hearing Aids
Our research aims to better understand the underlying biological mechanisms of such variability and pave the way for a more personalized and effective hearing aid technology, offering hope for those struggling in noisy listening environments.
A Dual Method for Inner Ear Hair Cell Regrowth in Zebrafish
These findings reveal a previously unrecognized mechanism of hair cell regeneration with implications for how hair cells may be encouraged to regenerate in the mammalian inner ear.
A New Mouse Model for Hearing Loss
A challenge in studying hair cell regeneration has been creating consistent and reliable ways to damage hair cells in laboratory mice. Overcoming this limitation, we developed a more uniform and effective method for hair cell death using the surgical delivery of a sisomicin antibiotic solution directly into the mouse inner ear.
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.