http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Many disorders of the inner hear which affect both hearing and balance can be hugely debilitating and are currently largely incurable. Cochlear implants have been used for many years to replace lost hearing resulting from inner ear damage. However, to date, there has not been an analogous treatment for balance disorders resulting from inner ear disease. One potential new treatment is an implantable vestibular prosthesis which would directly activate the vestibular nerve by electrical stimulation. This prosthetic treatment is tested in a new study by Christopher Phillips and his colleagues from the University of Washington in Seattle, USA. Their findings are published in the Springer journal Experimental Brain Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-06-ear-disorder.html Neuroscience Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:02:18 EST news290340120 (Medical Xpress)—The cochlear implant is widely considered to be the most successful neural prosthetic on the market. The implant, which helps deaf individuals perceive sound, translates auditory information into electrical signals that go directly to the brain, bypassing cells that don't serve this function as they should because they are damaged. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-device-resolution-deaf-individuals-opt.html Medical research Fri, 05 Apr 2013 06:25:01 EST news284361856 University of Miami (UM) Psychologist Alexandra L. Quittner leads one of the largest, most nationally representative studies of the effects of parenting on very young, deaf children who have received cochlear implants. The findings indicate that mothers who are most sensitive in their interactions with their children receiving cochlear implants have kids that develop language faster, almost "catching up" to their hearing peers. The report is published in the Journal of Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-mom-sensitivity-language-children-loss.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 08 Mar 2013 10:24:03 EST news281960623 Imagine suddenly being able to hear the words and tone of the person across the table from you in a crowded restaurant when once you only heard overwhelming noise. Or speaking on the telephone with confidence because what you hear is now crisp and clear. Longtime cochlear implant users are reporting such dramatic improvements in their hearing, thanks to new image-guided programming methods developed by Vanderbilt University researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-hifi-cochlear-implants.html Other Wed, 06 Mar 2013 09:04:47 EST news281783078 Some 16 per cent of European adults suffer from hearing loss that is severe enough to adversely affect their daily life. Hearing loss impacts on one's ability to communicate - to hear, process sound, and respond - which can make life frustrating. Untreated hearing loss can discourage social interaction, leading to depression, anxiety and isolation from the rest of the world. Sufferers also tend to express greater dissatisfaction with friendships, family life, health and finances. Depression is common in older adults who have trouble hearing. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-tackling-loss.html Other Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:51:37 EST news281177484 Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a group of progenitor cells in the inner ear that can become the sensory hair cells and adjacent supporting cells that enable hearing. Studying these progenitor cells could someday lead to discoveries that help millions of Americans suffering from hearing loss due to damaged or impaired sensory hair cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-forerunners-inner-ear-cells-enable.html Medical research Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:35:17 EST news281090108 Hearing loss is a significant public health problem affecting close to 50 million people in the United States alone. Sensorineural hearing loss is the most common form and is caused by the loss of sensory hair cells in the cochlea. Hair cell loss results from a variety of factors including noise exposure, aging, toxins, infections, and certain antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs. Although hearing aids and cochlear implants can ameliorate the symptoms somewhat, there are no known treatments to restore hearing, because auditory hair cells in mammals, unlike those in birds or fish, do not regenerate once lost. Auditory hair cell replacement holds great promise as a treatment that could restore hearing after loss of hair cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-sensory-hair-cells-regenerated-mammal.html Neuroscience Wed, 09 Jan 2013 12:00:07 EST news276953524 After years of basic research, scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are increasingly able to understand the mechanisms underlying the human Usher syndrome and are coming ever closer to finding a successful treatment approach. The scientists in the Usher research group of Professor Dr. Uwe Wolfrum are evaluating two different strategies. These involve either the repair of mutated genes or the deactivation of the genetic defects using agents. Based on results obtained to date, both options seem promising. Usher syndrome is a congenital disorder that causes the loss of both hearing and vision. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-biologists-read-through-mutations-responsible-usher.html Genetics Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:44:48 EST news273840275 For the very first time researchers have streamed braille patterns directly into a blind patient's retina, allowing him to read four-letter words accurately and quickly with an ocular neuroprosthetic device. The device, the Argus II, has been implanted in over 50 patients, many of who can now see color, movement and objects. It uses a small camera mounted on a pair of glasses, a portable processor to translate the signal from the camera into electrical stimulation, and a microchip with electrodes implanted directly on the retina. The study was authored by researchers at Second Sight, the company who developed the device, and has been published in Frontiers in Neuroprosthetics on November 22. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-patient-words-retina.html Neuroscience Thu, 22 Nov 2012 02:00:01 EST news272744273 Cochlear implants—electronic devices surgically implanted in the ear to help provide a sense of sound—have been successfully used since the late 1980's. But questions remain as to whether bilateral cochlear implants, placed in each ear rather than the traditional single-ear implant, are truly able to facilitate binaural hearing. Now, Tel Aviv University researchers have proof that under certain conditions, this practice has the ability to salvage binaural sound processing for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-bionic-ears-sum.html Medical research Thu, 20 Sep 2012 11:30:14 EST news267359408 (Medical Xpress) -- Doctors should reconsider the common practice of avoiding the use of cochlear implants in deaf children with developmental delays, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-benefits-cochlear-implants-deaf-babies.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 01 Aug 2012 07:00:01 EST news263021821 (Medical Xpress) -- Cochlear implants have restored basic hearing to some 220,000 deaf people, yet a microphone and related electronics must be worn outside the head, raising reliability issues, preventing patients from swimming and creating social stigma. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-middle-ear-microphone.html Medical research Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:27:46 EST news254971649 Clinical-researchers from University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center report that cochlear implantation provides an effective and safe way of restoring hearing in patients with far advanced otosclerosis (FAO), a hereditary condition that can lead to severe hearing loss. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-doctors-cochlear-implants-rare-disorder.html Medical research Sat, 21 Apr 2012 03:40:01 EST news254196051 Cochlear implants may be a safe, effective option for some organ transplant patients who've lost their hearing as an unfortunate consequence of their transplant-related drug regime, researchers report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-cochlear-implants-safe-effective-transplant.html Other Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:57:52 EST news248101048 (Medical Xpress) -- An ongoing study of 45 deaf children who had two cochlear implants finds that their language skills are within the normal range. Cochlear implants replace the eardrum by delivering an electric signal from a microphone to the auditory nerves located in the cochlea in the inner ear. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-significant-language-cochlear-implants.html Medical research Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:54:43 EST news238751673 Researchers from the University of Southampton are investigating how to help deaf people, who have received a cochlear implant, to get more enjoyment from music. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-deaf-people-music.html Other Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:04:02 EST news228045812