Spatial and non-spatial multisensory cueing in unilateral cochlear implant users.

In the present study we examined the integrity of spatial and non-spatial multisensory cueing (MSC) mechanisms in unilateral CI users. We tested 17 unilateral CI users and 17 age-matched normal hearing (NH) controls in an elevation-discrimination task for visual targets delivered at peripheral locations. Visual targets were presented alone (visual-only condition) or together with abrupt sounds that matched or did not match the location of the visual targets (audio-visual conditions).

Middle ear metastasis from dormant breast cancer as the initial sign of disseminated disease 20 years after quadrantectomy.

We describe an unusual case of breast cancer metastatic to the middle ear in a 71-year-old woman. The metastasis was the initial sign of disseminated disease 20 years after the patient had undergone a quadrantectomy for her primary disease. Computed tomography (CT) demonstrated the presence of an intratympanic mass with a soft-tissue density that was suggestive of chronic inflammation.

Spatial hearing with a single cochlear implant in late-implanted adults.

We assessed sound localisation abilities of late-implanted adults fitted with a single cochlear implant (CI) and examined whether these abilities are affected by the duration of implant use. Ten prelingually and four postlingually deafened adults who received a unilateral CI were tested in a sound-source identification task. Above chance performance was observed in those prelingual CI recipients who had worn their implant for longer time (9 years on average), revealing some monaural sound localisation abilities in this population but only after extensive CI use.

Hearing again with two ears: recovery of spatial hearing after bilateral cochlear implantation.

Bilateral cochlear implants (CI) offer a unique opportunity for the study of spatial hearing plasticity in humans. Here we studied the recovery of spatial hearing in two sequential bilateral CI recipients, adopting a longitudinal approach. Each recipient was tested in a sound-source identification task shortly after bilateral activation and at 1, 6, and 12 months follow-up.

Change blindness in profoundly deaf individuals and cochlear implant recipients.

We used a change blindness paradigm to examine visual abilities in the profoundly deaf when exogenous capture of attention is prevented and only endogenous attention shifts are possible. Nineteen profoundly deaf participants, 22 cochlear implant recipients and 18 hearing controls were asked to detect a change occurring between two consecutive visual scenes separated by a blank. Changes occurred on half of the trials, either at central or peripheral locations, and the task was performed under focused attention (at the centre or at the periphery) or under distributed attention.

Audiological findings in elderly patients with chronic renal failure.

The audiological results of 46 patients (m/f 27/19, mean age; 57.4 +/- 11.1) with chronic renal failure (CRF) undergoing dialysis were compared with those of an age- and gender-matched control group (n = 25).

Lesion detection in MS patients with and without clinical brainstem disorders: magnetic resonance imaging and brainstem auditory evoked potentials compared.

The findings of the present study can be summed up in the following points: (1) brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP), as compared with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), has a greater capacity and a lower cost in disclosing brainstem plaques both in MS patients with symptoms or signs of actual brainstem involvement and in clinically silent ones. This makes BAEP a useful technique for the neurologist, who can confirm the clinical suspicion of a brainstem lesion and follow the evolution of the disease in the patient. (2) The sensitivity of BAEP is lower than that of MRI as far as the anterior lesions of the brainstem are concerned.

A method of digital filtering to enhance the peaks of evoked potentials: application to auditory brainstem responses.

The aim of this paper is to propose a method of data processing for the analysis of evoked potentials, in particular for auditory brainstem responses. The present method has been developed to simplify and speed up the interpretation of the recordings by means of an enhancement of the response peaks. Even for experienced observers, identification of the response waves and subsequent latency measurements may sometimes constitute a difficult task, due to the presence of residual noise or to interference between the temporal waveforms of adjacent peaks and troughs.

The relationship of head and brainstem size to main parameters of ABR in the developmental age and in adults.

In a previous investigation the relationship between head size and main parameters of ABR, i.e. waves absolute latencies and interwave delays, was studied in 55 subjects (1).

Auditory evoked potentials test battery related to magnetic resonance imaging for multiple sclerosis patients.

The results of the recording of the Auditory Brainstem Responses (ABR) in 32 patient with "definite" multiple sclerosis (MS) according to Poser et al. (1983) were contrasted with the brain stem anatomic lesions evidenced by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and with the neurologic signs and symptoms found at clinical examination (BS). Twenty-one patients showed ABR abnormalities (65.