A recent one-year study found a 35% decrease in seizure frequency in people with epilepsy who listened to an excerpt of Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos. Research in animal models also suggests that music has multiple effects on the brain.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Johns Hopkins Medicine Media Relations is focused on disseminating current, accurate and useful information to the public via the media. As part of that effort, we are distributing our “COVID-19 Tip Sheet: Story Ideas from Johns Hopkins” every other Tuesday.
Hearing experts advocate in The New England Journal of Medicine for the FDA to implement the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017. The FDA missed the deadline to release the much-anticipated regulations on August 18, 2020
Mass Eye and Ear is proud to announce the successful conclusion of its historic campaign, “Bold Science. Life-Changing Cures.” which raised $252M from philanthropy to advance research to treat and cure diseases of vision, hearing, and the head and neck.
The campaign was led by co-chair Wyc Grousbeck, Boston Celtics CEO and Lead Owner and former Chairman of Mass Eye and Ear.
n the largest clinical trial of its kind, researchers show that combining sound and electrical stimulation of the tongue can significantly reduce tinnitus, commonly described as “ringing in the ears.” They also found that therapeutic effects can be sustained for up to 12 months post-treatment. The findings could potentially help millions of people since tinnitus affects about 10 to 15 percent of the population worldwide.
People's exposure to environmental noise dropped nearly in half during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, according to University of Michigan researchers who analyzed data from the Apple Hearing Study.
According to a study by University of Miami researchers published in the Journal of Communication in Healthcare, there are no consistently applied best practices in how to educate patients about what tinnitus is and options for management.
Thomas Balkany, M.D., Hotchkiss professor and chair emeritus of the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, is the first recipient of the annual Noel L. Cohen Award from the American Neurotology Society (ANS). Dr. Balkany was recognized during ANS’s Annual Meeting on September 11.
Scientists have mapped and simulated filaments in the inner ear at the atomic level, a discovery that shed lights on how the inner ear works and that could help researchers learn more about how and why people lose the ability to hear.
The Gallatin Galleries will present The Tuba Thieves, a video installation by artist Alison O’Daniel, on 24-hour display from Oct. 14 through Nov. 20 (1 Washington Place [at Broadway]). Inspired by a series of thefts from Los Angeles area high school marching bands in 2012, The Tuba Thieves is an ongoing project that includes an in-progress feature-length film, as well as performances and mixed-media installations.
A new Lyne Starling Trimble Science Heritage Public Lecture Series begins with six speakers, who are scheduled for online talks in late 2020-early 2021. The first lecture in the series will be held Sept. 30 and will be streamed online with an interactive question-and-answer period after the talk. During the series, science historians and writers will highlight important roles science has played in modern society, including in robotic development, WWII espionage, and technical accomplishments.
Using a device that could be built with a dollar’s worth of open-source parts and a 3D-printed case, researchers want to help the hundreds of millions of older people worldwide who can’t afford existing hearing aids to address their age-related hearing loss.
Until now, seven genes were known to be involved in hearing loss in Israel's Jewish population. A new study led by Zippora Brownstein, PhD, and Prof. Karen Avraham from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University has found that 32 genes are responsible for inherited hearing loss in Israeli Jewish families.
Topics in this issue: People with blindness have a refined sense of hearing; First-ever review of gender parity within psychological science; Friendly and open societies supercharged the early spread of COVID-19
With six mutations in genes associated with hearing, naked mole-rats can barely hear the constant squeaking they use to communicate with one another. This hearing loss, which is strange for such social, vocal animals, is an adaptive, beneficial trait, according to new findings published in the journal Current Biology.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Johns Hopkins Medicine Media Relations is focused on disseminating current, accurate and useful information to the public via the media. As part of that effort, we are distributing our “COVID-19 Tip Sheet: Story Ideas from Johns Hopkins” every other Tuesday.
An international group of hearing specialists has released a new set of recommendations emphasizing that cochlear implants should be offered to adults who have moderate to severe or worse hearing loss much more often than is the current practice. The group hopes the recommendations help increase usage of such devices, potentially improving hearing and quality of life for millions worldwide.
Transport noise is a major problem in Europe, with over 100 million people living in areas where road traffic noise exceeds levels greater than 55dB, the health-based threshold set by the EU.
Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are studying how hearing loss can affect the neurocognitive abilities of childhood cancer survivors. Findings show that survivors with severe hearing loss are at a significant increased risk for neurocognitive deficits, independent of what type of therapy they receive.
In a new study of human ear tissues, hearing scientists have demonstrated that age-related hearing loss, also called presbycusis, is mainly caused by damage to hair cells, the sensory cells in the inner ear that transform sound-induced vibrations into the electrical signals that are relayed to the brain by the auditory nerve. 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.
For 22 years, Douglas Kerkman lived with significant hearing loss in his right ear, the result of a cholesteatoma (a benign, infectious cyst) that significantly damaged his auditory ossicles, or “ear bones,” the three tiny bones in the middle ear. Last fall, Mr. Kerkman received a call from his doctor, Sam J. Marzo, MD, Loyola Medicine otolaryngologist, and dean and professor, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, letting him know about a first-of-its-kind hearing implant system that he believed could restore Mr. Kerkman’s ability to fully hear. Unlike other hearing devices, the Cochlear ™ Osia® 2 System sends sound vibrations directly to the inner ear, or cochlea.
Sharon Tapp, who worked as a nurse case manager at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C., started experiencing sudden body weakness, chest pain, a high temperature and headache on March 18. Concerned, she went to her local urgent care center to find out what was wrong. They told her that these symptoms were flu-like, tested her for the coronavirus and told her to quarantine for 14 days. After five days and no difference in the presentation of her symptoms, the urgent care team contacted Sharon, letting her know that she tested positive for coronavirus and recommending that she go to the emergency department. Sharon’s family took her to Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Suburban Hospital. Because her condition worsened while at Suburban, she was transferred to The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore within 10 days of being admitted to Suburban Hospital.
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.
Researchers at the University of Westminster and City University of London analysing the music record choices of guests on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs programme has found that the music we listen to between the age of 10 and 30 define us for the rest of our lives.
Hearing is widely thought to be the last sense to go in the dying process. Now UBC researchers have evidence that some people may still be able to hear while in an unresponsive state at the end of their life.
Researchers at McMaster University who study how the brain processes sound have discovered the common practice of using artificial tones in perception experiments could mean scientists are overlooking important and interesting discoveries in the field of brain research
A new study brings neural-level evidence that the continuous variation in natural speech makes the discrimination of phonemes challenging for adults suffering from developmental reading-deficit dyslexia.
A study by researchers at Mayo Clinic in Arizona published in the The Journal of Clinical Investigation has found that obesity is not only implicated in chronic diseases such as diabetes, but also in sudden-onset diseases such as pancreatitis.
Speech and music are two fundamentally human activities that are decoded in different brain hemispheres. A new study used a unique approach to reveal why this specialization exists.
A pair of biomarkers of brain function — one that represents “listening effort,” and another that measures ability to process rapid changes in frequencies — may help to explain why a person with normal hearing may struggle to follow conversations in noisy environments, according to a new study led by Massachusetts Eye and Ear researchers. The researchers hoped the study could inform the design of next-generation clinical testing for hidden hearing loss, a condition that cannot currently be measured using standard hearing exams.
A wearable monitoring device to make treatments easier and more affordable for the millions of people with swallowing disorders is about to be released into the market.
As harmful effects of noise are becoming more widely known, popular internet websites are increasingly being used as resources of information. For the International Year of Sound 2020 (#IYS2020), the Acoustical Society of America and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the CDC, took the lead in designing the online event Wiki4YearOfSound2020. The event will facilitate the improvement of Wikipedia content in topics related to acoustics, communication, music, noise and soundscapes.
Mass. Eye and Ear scientists report the identification of a new pathway linked to cell division in the ear. With this pathway, they were able to reprogram the inner ear’s cells to proliferate and regenerate hair cell-like cells in adult mouse models.
How can you tell when a storm is going to produce a tornado even before the twister forms? Research from Oklahoma State University and University of Nebraska-Lincoln indicates prior to tornado formation, storms emit low-frequency sounds.
Trapped water in the ear canal can cause infection and even damage, but it turns out that one of the most common methods people use to get rid of water in their ears can also cause complications. Researchers show shaking the head to free trapped water can cause brain damage in small children.