Effect of age-related hearing loss on the click-rate-induced facilitation of acoustic reflex thresholds.

OBJECTIVE: This investigation was designed to evaluate the effect of age-related hearing loss on the click-rate-induced improvement in the acoustic reflex thresholds. DESIGN: Case-control study. STUDY SAMPLE: Data from five different adults ear-groups (15 ears each) were included in the study: 1. Younger with normal hearing. 2. Older with normal hearing. 3. Older with mild high-frequency loss. 4. Older with moderate high-frequency loss. 5. Older with low- and high-frequency loss. Ipsilateral acoustic reflex thresholds were obtained from the left and/or right ear/s by presenting clicks at the repetition rates of 50, 100, 150, 200 and 300 clicks/s. The rate-induced facilitation (RIF) was calculated by subtracting the lowest acoustic reflex threshold from the highest reflex threshold obtained across the various click-rates. RESULTS: The click-RIF is significantly reduced in older individuals compared to younger adults. There is no significant difference in RIF across the four older adult groups suggesting that an age-related, mild to moderate hearing loss has no significant effect on the click RIF of the acoustic reflex thresholds. CONCLUSIONS: Click-RIF may allow us to document the effect of ageing on temporal processing within the auditory brainstem area, in a time-efficient and objective manner using commercially available equipment.

Emerging technologies with potential for objectively evaluating speech recognition skills.

Work-related exposure to noise and other ototoxins can cause damage to the cochlea, synapses between the inner hair cells, the auditory nerve fibers, and higher auditory pathways, leading to difficulties in recognizing speech. Procedures designed to determine speech recognition scores (SRS) in an objective manner can be helpful in disability compensation cases where the worker claims to have poor speech perception due to exposure to noise or ototoxins. Such measures can also be helpful in determining SRS in individuals who cannot provide reliable responses to speech stimuli, including patients with Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injuries, and infants with and without hearing loss. Cost-effective neural monitoring hardware and software is being rapidly refined due to the high demand for neurogaming (games involving the use of brain-computer interfaces), health, and other applications. More specifically, two related advances in neuro-technology include relative ease in recording neural activity and availability of sophisticated analysing techniques. These techniques are reviewed in the current article and their applications for developing objective SRS procedures are proposed. Issues related to neuroaudioethics (ethics related to collection of neural data evoked by auditory stimuli including speech) and neurosecurity (preservation of a person's neural mechanisms and free will) are also discussed.

Prevalence of Auditory Problems in Children With Feeding and Swallowing Disorders.

Purpose: Although an interdisciplinary approach is recommended for assessment and management of feeding or swallowing difficulties, audiologists are not always included in the interdisciplinary team. The purpose of this study is to report the prevalence of middle ear and hearing problems in children with feeding and swallowing disorders and to compare this prevalence with that in typical children. Method: A total of 103 children were included in the study: 44 children with feeding and swallowing disorders and 59 children without any such disorders. Audiological examinations included case-history information, visualization of the ear canals through otoscopy, middle ear evaluation through tympanometry, and hearing screenings using an audiometer. Results: The odds of excessive cerumen (p = .0000, small effect size), middle ear dysfunction (p = .0148, small effect size), and hearing screening failure (p = .0000, large effect size) were 22.14%, 2.97%, and 13.5% higher, respectively, in children with feeding and swallowing disorders compared with typically developing children. Conclusion: The significantly higher prevalence of hearing problems in children with feeding and swallowing disorders compared with typically developing children suggests that inclusion of an audiologist on the interdisciplinary team is likely to improve overall interventional outcomes for children with feeding and swallowing disorders.