
Wireless, optical cochlear implant uses LED lights to restore hearing in rodents
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Scientists have created an optical cochlear implant based on LED lights that can safely and partially restore the sensation of hearing in deaf rats and gerbils.
In a study of human ear tissues, scientists have demonstrated that age-related hearing loss is mainly caused by damage to hair cells. Their research challenges the prevailing view of the last 60 years that age-related hearing loss is mainly driven by damage to the stria vascularis, the cellular "battery" that powers the hair cell's mechanical-to-electrical signal conversion.
Age-related hearing loss has more to do with the death of hair cells than the cellular battery powering them wearing out, according to new research in JNeurosci. That means wearing ear protection may prevent some age-related hearing loss.
A preoperative procedure might enable surgeons to protect the language centers during brain tumor removal without needing to keep patients awake during surgery.
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A study from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago found that children with a MED-EL Synchrony cochlear implant device can undergo MRI safely, with no discomfort and reduced need for sedation or anesthesia. Findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Laryngoscope.
Hearing is widely thought to be the last sense to go in the dying process. Now, the first study to investigate hearing in palliative care patients who are close to death provides evidence that some may still be able to hear while in an unresponsive state. Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to measure the dying brain's response to sound. The findings may help family and friends bring comfort to a person in their final moments.
Scientists from the USC Stem Cell laboratories of Neil Segil and Justin Ichida are whispering the secrets of a simpler way to generate the sensory cells of the inner ear. Their approach uses direct reprogramming to produce sensory cells known as 'hair cells,' due to their hair-like protrusions that sense sound waves. The study was published in the journal eLife.
Toyohashi University of Technology has discovered that the difference in the ability to hear and distinguish English words including L and R, which are considered difficult for Japanese people, appears in pupillary responses. The research team conducted experiments to simultaneously measure the size of the pupil while playing English words in combinations such as "Light" and "Right", and clarified that it is possible to objectively estimate the ability to distinguish English words from the eyes.
Findings from a new study published in Clinical Neurophysiology, involving a collaborative effort between Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine and the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University, are shedding further light on how the brain's auditory system may provide a window into how the brain is affected by HIV.