Sonova Expands Audiological Care Services
needs often co-existing with hearing loss. This includes tinnitus care, auditory-cognitive training, as well as fall risk assessment and mitigation.
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Author: Stefani Kim
FCOM2021 Conference to Take Place Nov 5-7, 2021
The event will take place in an inclusive hybrid format, both in-person at the Ritz-Carlton, Naples, and as a virtual event online, November 5-7, 2021. The FCOM2021 agenda is said to feature “some of the brightest minds in the multi-specialties of ear, nose, and throat medicine and surgery.”
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Mapping Words to Color
In a new study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are developing an algorithm capable of inferring a culture’s communicative needs—the imperative to talk about certain colors—using previously collected data from 130 diverse languages.
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Widex Partners with Breast Cancer Research Foundation
Widex USA Inc announced that it has pledged support for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), a private funder of breast cancer research, to sponsor its annual Pink Promises event taking place on September 30, 2021.
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Managing Listening Difficulties in Patients with ASD and Normal Hearing Sensitivity
Although auditory issues have been consistently identified among the most common parent-reported sensory issues affecting children with ASD, audiologists rarely evaluate complex listening ability during clinical appointments. The disconnect between patients’ presenting complaints and the conventional test battery may stem from limited knowledge of the listening challenges common to patients with ASD or the range of available management options. This study examines testing in a group of children with ASD and normal hearing sensitivity, and introduces a remediation-driven streamlined assessment as well as a management matrix tailored to each distinct pattern of performance on auditory tests.
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Using the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) to Evaluate Split Processing in Hearing Aids
Mismatch negativity (MMN) is a well-documented brain signal that appears in the electroencephalogram (EEG) when the auditory system detects an unexpected sound. More recently, the MMN (which doesn’t require the listener’s active participation) has been used to determine if different hearing aid features support or augment a listener’s tracking of changing speech sounds from a single voice out of many. This study shows that the Signia Augmented Xperience (AX) platform and its Augmented Focus (AF) system—which splits the incoming sound into two separate signal streams—increases the contrast between sounds in a “cocktail party”-type setting and enhances listeners’ tracking of changing phonemes. Further, the results suggest the behavioral advantages are probably bottom-up in nature, meaning that AF also likely reduces the effort/fatigue experienced by the wearer when trying to communicate in noisy environments.
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How to Manage in Managed Care, Part 2
While provider participation in managed care remains optional, managed care is now an integral part of US healthcare, and hearing care as a supplemental benefit continues to grow in private and public health plans. Part 1 (published in September) of this 3-part series was a primer on health insurance and managed care. In Part 2, we investigate the recent growth of managed care and the expansion of supplemental benefits such as dental, vision, and hearing care and common perceptions and criticisms of managed care among hearing healthcare providers.
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Understanding the Sound Mind: An Interview with Nina Kraus, PhD
Nina Kraus, PhD, is the Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology in the Department of Communication Sciences and Otolaryngology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Through her research and those of her colleagues in the Kraus Lab, she has continually uncovered new findings about auditory processing and the brain, as well as our lives in sound—findings that have great consequences for young children and their exposure to music, as well as for people with language disorders, concussion, cognitive issues, hearing loss, and more.
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Translating Insect Defense Signals into Sound
Sawfly larvae protect themselves by secreting cocktails of unpleasant, volatile chemicals intended to repel predators, particularly ants. Researchers can assess the effectiveness of these defense by staging meetups, so-called bioassays, between prey and predator. But entomologist Jean-Luc Boevé and informatics engineer Rudi Giot have taken a different approach, translating the secretions’ chemical composition into sounds, and measuring how humans react.
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Bird Vocalizations May Help Vocal Prostheses
Researchers can predict what syllables a bird will sing—and when it will sing them—by reading electrical signals in its brain, reports a new study from the University of California San Diego. An article detailing the research appears on the University’s website.
Read MoreHLAA 2022 Issues Call for Papers
The Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) announced it upcoming conference, HLAA 2022, that is coming to the JW Marriott Tampa Water Street, June 23-25, 2022.
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Starkey CEO Brandon Sawalich Wins 2021 CEO World Award
Starkey announced that President and CEO Brandon Sawalich has been named the Silver Globee Winner for CEO of the Year in the Manufacturing category of the 2021 CEO World Awards.
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Frequency Therapeutics Announces New FX-322 Results
Frequency Therapeutics, Inc announced that four additional sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) subjects from its FX-322-111 open-label study achieved “statistically significant hearing improvements when evaluated 8 to 12 months following initial dosing.”
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October is National Protect Your Hearing Month
Sounds can damage your hearing when they are too loud, even for a brief time, or loud and long-lasting. Sometimes the damage is permanent. Raising awareness about noise-induced hearing loss from all sources is the focus of National Protect Your Hearing Month, which is observed each October by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and other organizations.
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Plural Releases 3rd Edition of Clinical Audiology Textbook
Plural Publishing announced the release of the third edition of “Clinical Audiology: An Introduction,” described as “a comprehensive enhancement of all the introductory material available in previous editions of this stimulating textbook.”
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