People who experience a sudden hearing loss (SSNHL) are often treated with systemic steroids, which are taken orally. Studies however show that people with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) who do not respond to this treatment can benefit from intratympanic steroid injections (July 2012). Read more.
The longstanding mystery of how selective hearing works - how people can tune in to a single speaker while tuning out their crowded, noisy environs - is solved this week in the journal Nature by two scientists from the University of California, San Francisco (April 2012). Read more
The first edition in May 2012 of the online, open-access journal PLoS Biology reveals that differences in touch sensitivity caused by genetic factors can also be inherited. Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin have discovered that some of these factors also influence hearing, which implies that a single mutation could potentially affect both senses (April 2012). Read more
Researchers have found that sounds create after-vibrations in our inner ear. These vibrations, in all probability, function like a form of short-term memory (October 2011). Read more
Many studies have shown that a good many musicians suffer from hearing loss as a result of the repetitive and constant noise they are exposed to. But playing a musical instrument can also have a positive effect on our hearing, according to a survey (October 2011). Read more
More than half of the Australians with impaired hearing have done nothing about their condition, a study finds (November 2011). Read more
Hearing loss affects more and more people. In 2031, 14.5 million Britons will be affected. WHO says that hearing loss will be one of the top 10 disease burdens in many countries and will have a great social and economic impact. Despite this, 40 times less money is used on research into hearing loss than on cardiovascular conditions per person affected (November 2011). Read more
Adults born deaf react more quickly to objects at the edge of their visual field than hearing people, according to groundbreaking new research by the University of Sheffield (November 2010). Read more
British research study released in April 2000 providing guidelines for practitioners to assist in the diagnosis of noise induced hearing loss in medicolegal settings. Read here
American research report for practitioners detailing the hearing threshold levels in the unscreened adult population of the United States from 1959-1962 and 1999-2004. Read here
This August 2008 literature review is a a collaboration of the Health Sciences Centre of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and Health Technology Analysts, Sydney, Australia. Read here
Deaf or blind people often report enhanced abilities in their remaining senses, but up until now, no one has explained how and why that could be. Researchers at The University of Western Ontario, led by Stephen Lomber of The Centre for Brain and Mind have discovered there is a causal link between enhanced visual abilities and reorganisation of the part of the brain that usually handles auditory input in congenitally deaf cats (October 2010). Read more
Dr Srdjan Vlajkovic from the University of Auckland has received funding from the Royal National Institute for Deaf People ("RNID") in the United Kingdom to study a drug called ADAC. ADAC encourages the bodys own systems to remove free radicals. Dr Vlajkovic is investigating whether it can protect against hearing loss caused by exposure to noise (April 2009). Read more
Research conducted by a University of Canterbury Masters of Audiology student, Eyal Goel, suggests that if you attend an aerobics class regularly without wearing hearing protection, you may be at risk of developing a noise induced hearing loss (April 2009). Read more