Audiology by Alexandros G. Sfakianakis: 12/22/17

Παρασκευή 22 Δεκεμβρίου 2017

When Should You see a Hearing Specialist?

The question that everybody with tinitus is asking, Temporary Tinnitus or Serious Damage: When Should I see the Specialist?

If you have experienced noises or ringing in your ears or head, when no external physical noises are present, you could be suffering from tinnitus. This is a physical condition that damages the tiny sensory hair cells in the cochlea of your inner ear. You will need to see a doctor immediately, who can refer you to a tinnitus specialist for an evaluation and further testing. There is no cure for this condition, but there are treatments that can help you manage tinnitus.

Do I Need to see a Tinnitus Specialist?
If the ringing noise in your ear lasts for more than a few days, it is a good idea to see your family doctor. You should see a doctor immediately if the noise is accompanied by dizziness and pain. He can evaluate the situation and determine if you should see a specialist. Although this condition is not well-known, it is very common. In some cases, people fail to get treatment and experience permanent damage to their hair cells.

What to Expect During an Evaluation?
One of the challenges pertaining to a tinnitus evaluation is that every patient will experience something different. Although there will be similarities, a tinnitus specialist will need to measure the situation by asking a variety of questions, such as:
• How many days has the ringing been going on?
• Is there an activity, or time of day, that makes it worse?
• Is the sound constant or temporary?
• Is it a loud or low sound?
• Does the noise ever change?
After listening to your answers, making a list of your symptoms, and learning more about your medical history, a specialist can decide how to proceed.

Types of Testing
There are some tests that a specialist may administer after the evaluation, in order to determine if this condition is temporary, or if it possesses a serious danger. These tests will vary, but commonly include: a pitch match test, a loudness test, and a visual analog test. After the testing has been performed, the specialist will have more insight on how to treat the issue.
<strong>Types of Treatment</strong>
The bad news is that tinnitus can be very agitating, and in some cases, painful. However, the good news is that a qualified specialist can generally treat the symptoms, although there is no cure. Treatment will vary, depending on the results of your evaluation. Here are some of the treatments that a medical professional may recommend:
• Hearing aids
• Masking and noise suppression devices
• Tinnitus Retraining Therapy
• Free-standing white noise generating machine

In some cases, there are medications that a specialist can prescribe to help suppress the tinnitus symptoms. A medical expert will also determine if you there is an underlying condition that is causing tinnitus.
This is a condition that can be very frustrating and confusing for patients, which is why you should always leave it to the professionals. Our tinnitus specialists have the knowledge and training to evaluate your situation and determine the best course of treatment. Our main goal is to help you get the relief you need!

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Treatment For Ringing In Ears

A sense of a “ringing” sound in the ears is referred to as Tinnitus. Tinnitus isn’t really an illness in and of itself. The condition occurs as a symptom of other conditions, which can range from ear infections, exposure to loud noises, depression, use of certain medications, tumors or other medical conditions like Meniere’s disease (which can also cause dizziness). There’s no question that needing constant treatment for ringing in ears can be very aggravating, which is why a natural and effective treatment for ringing in ears is very valuable.

Natural Approaches to Healing Tinnitus

One key to avoiding Tinnitus is to protect the ears from prolonged exposure to loud noises that can cause hearing damage. Loud concerts and listening to very loud music over earphones should be avoided in order to protect the ears.

Medical treatment for ringing in ears

Since there are many possible causes for ringing in the ears, it’s important for anyone who suffers from this problem to consult a physician for help, in order to rule out potentially serious causes, like brain tumors or tumors near the ears. A full workup by a medical professional will help find the source of the ringing problem so it can be treated effectively. After a full exam, a hearing specialist may be brought in to do a more specific exam to ascertain the cause of the Tinnitus.

If the examining doctors find a medical cause for the ringing, a treatment plan will be established to treat the illness. In some cases, anti-depressant medications have been found to help relieve Tinniitus, Elavil is sometimes given to patients to relieve the problem, as well as anti-anxiety drugs like Valium. Sometimes a steroid is actually applied to the middle-ear area, and that, along with anti-anxiety drugs can help relieve the ringing.

Natural Treatments

Sometimes a build-up of earwax can bring on ringing, and this is a condition that can be treated fairly easily by flushing out the ears and then having a doctor use a curved instrument to clean out any excess wax. In the case of an ear infection, the ear can be treated with hydrocortisone to improve the condition and relieve itchiness and other symptoms of infection. In other cases, a “masking” device, which is like a hearing aid, can be worn. These devices emit a sound that distracts from the ringing sensation, and can “train” the hearing away from the ringing tone.

Tinnitus isn’t an easy condition to live with, but the good news is that help is definitely available, so those who are dealing with it should schedule an exam to help discover the source of the problem.

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Do Transmasculine Speakers Present With Gender-Related Voice Problems? Insights From a Participant-Centered Mixed-Methods Study

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are indications of gender-related voice problems in our transmasculine participants and to analyze how discrepancies between participant self-evaluations and researcher-led examinations can be best negotiated to ensure a participant-centered interpretation.

Method

We conducted a participant-centered mixed-methods study combining qualitative content analyses of semistructured interviews, acoustical voice analyses, and an examination of gender attributions to voice. Fourteen German-speaking transmasculine people, 14 cisfemale control persons, and 7 cismale control persons participated. The data were examined for indications of gender-related voice problems pertaining to vocal gender presentation and gender attribution to voice received from others.

Results

Eleven participants (79%) presented with indications of gender-related voice problems. Problems included dissatisfaction with gender-related voice features, difficulties with control of vocal gender presentation, and mismatch between desired gender attribution and gender attributions received from others. Discrepancies between participant self-evaluations and researcher-led examinations were observed in a number of cases.

Conclusion

Transmasculine speakers may experience a range of gender-related voice problems. Research and clinical practice with transmasculine people need to be adapted to better match the diversity of the population and the complexity of the processes that shape the production of speaker vocal gender in interaction.

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Do Transmasculine Speakers Present With Gender-Related Voice Problems? Insights From a Participant-Centered Mixed-Methods Study

Purpose

Method

Results

Conclusion

Transmasculine speakers may experience a range of gender-related voice problems. Research and clinical practice with transmasculine people need to be adapted to better match the diversity of the population and the complexity of the processes that shape the production of speaker vocal gender in interaction.

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Do Transmasculine Speakers Present With Gender-Related Voice Problems? Insights From a Participant-Centered Mixed-Methods Study

Purpose

Method

Results

Conclusion

Transmasculine speakers may experience a range of gender-related voice problems. Research and clinical practice with transmasculine people need to be adapted to better match the diversity of the population and the complexity of the processes that shape the production of speaker vocal gender in interaction.

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Can You Hear Me Now?

Hearing difficulty (HD) and tinnitus in the presence of normal audiometric thresholds represent a clinical challenge. So-called, hidden hearing loss (HHL) has captured significant interest from clinicians and researchers in attempts to understand factors that contribute to this phenomenon. Etiologies ranging from cochlear synaptopathy to central auditory processing deficits have been suggested. Most audiologists have come across these patients with complaints of hearing problems (particularly in noise) but normal hearing.

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Negative-delay sources in distortion product otoacoustic emissions

Publication date: Available online 22 December 2017
Source:Hearing Research
Author(s): Renata Sisto, Christopher A. Shera, Arturo Moleti
Long-delay components showing a symmetrical pattern with positive and negative delays can be observed in the time-frequency representation (or in the inverse Fourier transform) of distortion product otoacoustic emissions. Positive-only phase-gradient delays are predicted by place-fixed backscattering mechanisms, such as coherent reflection due to roughness, whereas the nonlinear distortion wave-fixed mechanism should generate an almost null-delay component. The symmetrical delay pattern arises whenever spectral amplitude fluctuations are not fully correlated to phase fluctuations. An interpretation of this phenomenon is proposed, involving place-fixed modulation of the spectral strength of the wave–fixed nonlinear generator.Experimental data are shown in which these negative-delay sources are particularly strong, and further amplified by contralateral stimulation, suggesting that this effect could be dynamically enhanced. Analytical solutions of a linear 1-d transmission line model, in which cubic nonlinearity and roughness were added as small perturbations, have been used to test this hypothesis.

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Intentional switching in auditory selective attention: Exploring attention shifts with different reverberation times

Publication date: Available online 22 December 2017
Source:Hearing Research
Author(s): Josefa Oberem, Julia Seibold, Iring Koch, Janina Fels
Using a well-established binaural-listening paradigm the ability to intentionally switch auditory selective attention was examined under anechoic, low reverberation (0.8 s) and high reverberation (1.75 s) conditions. Twenty-three young, normal-hearing subjects were tested in a within-subject design to analyze influences of the reverberation times. Spoken word pairs by two speakers were presented simultaneously to subjects from two of eight azimuth positions. The stimuli consisted of a single number word, (i.e., 1 to 9), followed by either the direction “UP” or “DOWN” in German. Guided by a visual cue prior to auditory stimulus onset indicating the position of the target speaker, subjects were asked to identify whether the target number was numerically smaller or greater than five and to categorize the direction of the second word. Switch costs, (i.e. reaction time differences between a position switch of the target relative to a position repetition), were larger under the high reverberation condition. Furthermore, the error rates were highly dependent on reverberant energy and reverberation interacted with the congruence effect, (i.e. stimuli spoken by target and distractor may evoke the same answer (congruent) or different answers (incongruent)), indicating larger congruence effects under higher reverberation times.

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Olivocochlear Efferents: Their action, effects, measurement and uses, and the impact of the new conception of cochlear mechanical responses

Publication date: Available online 21 December 2017
Source:Hearing Research
Author(s): John J. Guinan
The anatomy and physiology of olivocochlear (OC) efferents are reviewed. To help interpret these, recent advances in cochlear mechanics are also reviewed. Lateral OC (LOC) efferents innervate primary auditory-nerve (AN) fiber dendrites. The most important LOC function may be to reduce auditory neuropathy. Medial OC (MOC) efferents innervate the outer hair cells (OHCs) and act to turn down the gain of cochlear amplification. Cochlear amplification had been thought to act only through basilar membrane (BM) motion, but recent reports show that motion near the reticular lamina (RL) is amplified more than BM motion, and that RL-motion amplification extends to several octaves below the local characteristic frequency. Data on efferent effects on AN-fiber responses, otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) and human psychophysics are reviewed and reinterpreted in the light of the new cochlear-mechanical data. The possible origin of OAEs in RL motion is considered. MOC-effect measuring methods and MOC-induced changes in human responses are also reviewed, including that ipsilateral and contralateral sound can produce MOC effects with different patterns across frequency. MOC efferents help to reduce damage due to acoustic trauma. Many, but not all, reports show that subjects with stronger contralaterally-evoked MOC effects have better ability to detect signals (e.g. speech) in noise, and that MOC effects can be modulated by attention.

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Negative-delay sources in distortion product otoacoustic emissions

Publication date: Available online 22 December 2017
Source:Hearing Research
Author(s): Renata Sisto, Christopher A. Shera, Arturo Moleti
Long-delay components showing a symmetrical pattern with positive and negative delays can be observed in the time-frequency representation (or in the inverse Fourier transform) of distortion product otoacoustic emissions. Positive-only phase-gradient delays are predicted by place-fixed backscattering mechanisms, such as coherent reflection due to roughness, whereas the nonlinear distortion wave-fixed mechanism should generate an almost null-delay component. The symmetrical delay pattern arises whenever spectral amplitude fluctuations are not fully correlated to phase fluctuations. An interpretation of this phenomenon is proposed, involving place-fixed modulation of the spectral strength of the wave–fixed nonlinear generator.Experimental data are shown in which these negative-delay sources are particularly strong, and further amplified by contralateral stimulation, suggesting that this effect could be dynamically enhanced. Analytical solutions of a linear 1-d transmission line model, in which cubic nonlinearity and roughness were added as small perturbations, have been used to test this hypothesis.

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Intentional switching in auditory selective attention: Exploring attention shifts with different reverberation times

Publication date: Available online 22 December 2017
Source:Hearing Research
Author(s): Josefa Oberem, Julia Seibold, Iring Koch, Janina Fels
Using a well-established binaural-listening paradigm the ability to intentionally switch auditory selective attention was examined under anechoic, low reverberation (0.8 s) and high reverberation (1.75 s) conditions. Twenty-three young, normal-hearing subjects were tested in a within-subject design to analyze influences of the reverberation times. Spoken word pairs by two speakers were presented simultaneously to subjects from two of eight azimuth positions. The stimuli consisted of a single number word, (i.e., 1 to 9), followed by either the direction “UP” or “DOWN” in German. Guided by a visual cue prior to auditory stimulus onset indicating the position of the target speaker, subjects were asked to identify whether the target number was numerically smaller or greater than five and to categorize the direction of the second word. Switch costs, (i.e. reaction time differences between a position switch of the target relative to a position repetition), were larger under the high reverberation condition. Furthermore, the error rates were highly dependent on reverberant energy and reverberation interacted with the congruence effect, (i.e. stimuli spoken by target and distractor may evoke the same answer (congruent) or different answers (incongruent)), indicating larger congruence effects under higher reverberation times.

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Olivocochlear Efferents: Their action, effects, measurement and uses, and the impact of the new conception of cochlear mechanical responses

Publication date: Available online 21 December 2017
Source:Hearing Research
Author(s): John J. Guinan
The anatomy and physiology of olivocochlear (OC) efferents are reviewed. To help interpret these, recent advances in cochlear mechanics are also reviewed. Lateral OC (LOC) efferents innervate primary auditory-nerve (AN) fiber dendrites. The most important LOC function may be to reduce auditory neuropathy. Medial OC (MOC) efferents innervate the outer hair cells (OHCs) and act to turn down the gain of cochlear amplification. Cochlear amplification had been thought to act only through basilar membrane (BM) motion, but recent reports show that motion near the reticular lamina (RL) is amplified more than BM motion, and that RL-motion amplification extends to several octaves below the local characteristic frequency. Data on efferent effects on AN-fiber responses, otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) and human psychophysics are reviewed and reinterpreted in the light of the new cochlear-mechanical data. The possible origin of OAEs in RL motion is considered. MOC-effect measuring methods and MOC-induced changes in human responses are also reviewed, including that ipsilateral and contralateral sound can produce MOC effects with different patterns across frequency. MOC efferents help to reduce damage due to acoustic trauma. Many, but not all, reports show that subjects with stronger contralaterally-evoked MOC effects have better ability to detect signals (e.g. speech) in noise, and that MOC effects can be modulated by attention.

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Negative-delay sources in distortion product otoacoustic emissions

Publication date: Available online 22 December 2017
Source:Hearing Research
Author(s): Renata Sisto, Christopher A. Shera, Arturo Moleti
Long-delay components showing a symmetrical pattern with positive and negative delays can be observed in the time-frequency representation (or in the inverse Fourier transform) of distortion product otoacoustic emissions. Positive-only phase-gradient delays are predicted by place-fixed backscattering mechanisms, such as coherent reflection due to roughness, whereas the nonlinear distortion wave-fixed mechanism should generate an almost null-delay component. The symmetrical delay pattern arises whenever spectral amplitude fluctuations are not fully correlated to phase fluctuations. An interpretation of this phenomenon is proposed, involving place-fixed modulation of the spectral strength of the wave–fixed nonlinear generator.Experimental data are shown in which these negative-delay sources are particularly strong, and further amplified by contralateral stimulation, suggesting that this effect could be dynamically enhanced. Analytical solutions of a linear 1-d transmission line model, in which cubic nonlinearity and roughness were added as small perturbations, have been used to test this hypothesis.

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Intentional switching in auditory selective attention: Exploring attention shifts with different reverberation times

Publication date: Available online 22 December 2017
Source:Hearing Research
Author(s): Josefa Oberem, Julia Seibold, Iring Koch, Janina Fels
Using a well-established binaural-listening paradigm the ability to intentionally switch auditory selective attention was examined under anechoic, low reverberation (0.8 s) and high reverberation (1.75 s) conditions. Twenty-three young, normal-hearing subjects were tested in a within-subject design to analyze influences of the reverberation times. Spoken word pairs by two speakers were presented simultaneously to subjects from two of eight azimuth positions. The stimuli consisted of a single number word, (i.e., 1 to 9), followed by either the direction “UP” or “DOWN” in German. Guided by a visual cue prior to auditory stimulus onset indicating the position of the target speaker, subjects were asked to identify whether the target number was numerically smaller or greater than five and to categorize the direction of the second word. Switch costs, (i.e. reaction time differences between a position switch of the target relative to a position repetition), were larger under the high reverberation condition. Furthermore, the error rates were highly dependent on reverberant energy and reverberation interacted with the congruence effect, (i.e. stimuli spoken by target and distractor may evoke the same answer (congruent) or different answers (incongruent)), indicating larger congruence effects under higher reverberation times.

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Olivocochlear Efferents: Their action, effects, measurement and uses, and the impact of the new conception of cochlear mechanical responses

Publication date: Available online 21 December 2017
Source:Hearing Research
Author(s): John J. Guinan
The anatomy and physiology of olivocochlear (OC) efferents are reviewed. To help interpret these, recent advances in cochlear mechanics are also reviewed. Lateral OC (LOC) efferents innervate primary auditory-nerve (AN) fiber dendrites. The most important LOC function may be to reduce auditory neuropathy. Medial OC (MOC) efferents innervate the outer hair cells (OHCs) and act to turn down the gain of cochlear amplification. Cochlear amplification had been thought to act only through basilar membrane (BM) motion, but recent reports show that motion near the reticular lamina (RL) is amplified more than BM motion, and that RL-motion amplification extends to several octaves below the local characteristic frequency. Data on efferent effects on AN-fiber responses, otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) and human psychophysics are reviewed and reinterpreted in the light of the new cochlear-mechanical data. The possible origin of OAEs in RL motion is considered. MOC-effect measuring methods and MOC-induced changes in human responses are also reviewed, including that ipsilateral and contralateral sound can produce MOC effects with different patterns across frequency. MOC efferents help to reduce damage due to acoustic trauma. Many, but not all, reports show that subjects with stronger contralaterally-evoked MOC effects have better ability to detect signals (e.g. speech) in noise, and that MOC effects can be modulated by attention.

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Πληροφορίες

Παρασκευή 22 Δεκεμβρίου 2017