Health-Related Quality of Life and the Role of the Big Five Personality Traits in Postlingually Deaf Cochlear Implant Users.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the relationships between generic health-related quality of life (HRQoL), the Big Five personality traits, speech understanding, and sociodemographic factors in a group of postlingually deaf cochlear implant (CI) users.

Method: The study group included 81 participants who met the inclusion criteria: profound sensorineural hearing loss, 18 years of age or more, and using at least one CI implanted after 18 years of age. Some 18% were bilateral CI users.

Self-Perceived Stress and the Personality of Mothers of Children with Central Auditory Processing Disorder, as Well as in Mothers of Typically Developing Children, Before and Late in the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objectives: This study aims to measure, at two time points, the relationship between self-perceived global stress and the personality traits of the mothers of children who have central auditory processing disorder (APD) and compare it with the results from mothers of typically developing (TD) children. The comparisons were made before the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as late in the pandemic.

Methods: The level of stress was assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), while the Short Big Five Markers (IPIP-BFM-20) were used to assess Big Five personality traits.

Self-perceived stress and the personality of mothers of children with central auditory processing disorders - Differences from mothers of typically developing children.

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between self-perceived global stress and the personality traits of mothers of children with central auditory processing disorders (APD), and make a comparison with mothers of typically developing (TD) children.

Design And Methods: A cross-sectional study using two questionnaires - the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and the Short Big Five Markers (IPIP-BFM-20) - to assess five personality dimensions: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and intellect/imagination. The study material included 187 mothers, of whom 108 were mothers of children with APD.

Measurement of Wideband Absorbance as a Test for Otosclerosis.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of wideband energy absorbance in diagnosing otosclerosis by comparing the differences in acoustic absorbance between otosclerotic and normal ears. Exactly 90 surgically confirmed otosclerotic ears were included in the test group. The control group consisted of 126 matched normal-hearing subjects.

Relationship Between Distortion Product - Otoacoustic Emissions (DPOAEs) and High-Frequency Acoustic Immittance Measures.

BACKGROUND Pathologies that alter the impedance of the middle ear may consequently modify the DPOAE amplitude. The aim of this study was to correlate information from 2 different clinical procedures assessing middle ear status. Data from DPOAE responses (both DP-Gram and DP I/O functions) were correlated with data from multi-component tympanometry at 1000 Hz.

Comparison of 3 ABR Methods for Diagnosis of Retrocochlear Hearing Impairment.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of methods for screening for retrocochlear pathologies based on auditory evoked brainstem responses (ABRs). The study compared the sensitivity, specificity, and effectiveness of these 3 techniques. MATERIAL AND METHODS The methods were: (i) standard ABR utilizing click-evoked responses, (ii) stacked ABR based on derived-band responses, and (iii) ABRs evoked by tone-pips (ABR TP).

Repeatability of transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions in young adults.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the repeatability and variability of TEOAE characteristics in hearing screening tests performed under practical conditions on normal subjects.

Material/methods: A group of 11 young, normal-hearing subjects aged 19-24 years was tested. They were examined otologically and audiologically prior to the tests and no ear pathologies were found.

Diverging frequency-modulated 50-kHz vocalization, locomotor activity and conditioned place preference effects in rats given repeated amphetamine treatment.

Behavioral sensitization and tolerance to repetitive exposure to addictive drugs are commonly used for the assessment of the early stages of the drug dependence progress in animals. The orchestra of tools for studying the progress of drug dependence in laboratory rodents has been considerably enriched in the 1980s by the introduction of ultrasonic vocalization (USV) detection and characterization. However, the relationship between the results of this technology and those of traditional behavioral tests is not clear.

Low-frequency otoacoustic emissions in schoolchildren measured by two commercial devices.

Objective: Click evoked otoacoustic emissions in children are known to be good indicators of hearing function when used in the frequency range 1.5-4 kHz. Using two commercial devices, the present study investigates the usefulness of responses in the lower frequency range of 0.

A modified oddball paradigm for investigation of neural correlates of attention: a simultaneous ERP-fMRI study.

Introduction: The objective of the presented study was to develop and evaluate a P300 experimental protocol for simultaneous registration of event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional MRI (fMRI) data with continuous imaging. It may be useful for investigating attention and working memory processes in specific populations, such as children and neuropsychiatric patients.

Materials And Methods: Eleven children were investigated with simultaneous ERP-fMRI.

Chirp-evoked otoacoustic emissions in children.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to investigate the properties of otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) evoked by chirp stimuli and compare them with standard click-evoked OAEs. Differences between evoked OAEs in children with and without spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) were also assessed.

Methods: OAEs were first recorded from 54 children (age 4-10 years) in a screening setup.

Hearing threshold prediction with Auditory Steady State Responses and estimation of correction functions to compensate for differences with behavioral data, in adult subjects. Part 1: Audera and CHARTR EP devices.

Background: The objective of the study was the evaluation and comparison of hearing threshold values extrapolated from Auditory Steady State Responses, using 2 commercial systems and the estimation of correction factors applicable to the ASSR data.

Material/methods: One hundred ten subjects participated to the study. All subjects were initially examined with otoscopy, pure-tone audiometry and admittance.

Otoacoustic emissions in neonates measured with different acquisition protocols.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to investigate the properties of neonatal transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) recorded with three most popular stimulation protocols. Differences between the recorded TEOAEs with and without spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs), were also assessed. In addition two more issues were addressed: (i) the effect of windowing on the TEOAE responses; and (ii) the contribution of the TEOAE segment from 12.

Contralateral suppression of otoacoustic emissions: input-output functions in neonates.

Background: The literature suggests that contralateral acoustic stimulation (CAS) alters the amplitude of the distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs), but it is still unknown whether the DPOAE Input/Output (I/O) functions are also affected. To elucidate this aspect of the DPOAEs, the present study assessed the effects of CAS on DPOAE I/O functions at the frequencies of 2 kHz and 4 kHz, in a sample of term neonatal subjects.

Material/methods: Sixty randomly selected neonates were included in the study.

Dose-dependent protection on cisplatin-induced ototoxicity - an electrophysiological study on the effect of three antioxidants in the Sprague-Dawley rat animal model.

Background: Sprague-Dawley rats were used as an acute cisplatin ototoxicity model to compare the chemo-protective efficacy of 2 sulphur-containing antioxidants (D-methionine, N-L-acetylcysteine) and 1 seleno-organic compound (ebselen). Each putative chemo-protective agent was tested at 3 different dosages in order to assess the influence of dose on auditory preservation.

Material/methods: A total of 40 Sprague-Dawley albino male rats were used in the study.

A connection between the Efferent Auditory System and Noise-Induced Tinnitus Generation. Reduced contralateral suppression of TEOAEs in patients with noise-induced tinnitus.

Background: Subjective tinnitus is an auditory perception that is not caused by external stimulation, its source being anywhere in the auditory system. Furthermore, evidence exists that exposure to noise alters cochlear micromechanics, either directly or through complex feed-back mechanisms, involving the medial olivocochlear efferent system. The aim of this study was to assess the role of the efferent auditory system in noise-induced tinnitus generation.

Threshold estimation in adult normal- and impaired-hearing subjects using auditory steady-state responses.

Background: The aim of the study was to compare the estimation of hearing threshold values by behavioral and electrophysiological (ASSR) methods in subjects with normal hearing and those with sensorineural hearing impairment.

Material/methods: Thirty-two subjects (17 male and 15 female) were tested, with a total of 61 ears. Of these, 11 (22 ears) presented normal hearing threshold values (0-19 dBHL) and 21 (39 ears) sensorineural deficits.

Estimation of pure-tone thresholds in adults using extrapolated distortion product otoacoustic emission input/output-functions and auditory steady state responses.

Pure-tone thresholds were used as the reference and compared with extrapolated distortion product otoacoustic emission input/output-functions and auditory steady state responses (ASSR) in hearing-impaired adults, using the Cochlea-Scan and Audera devices. Fifty-three subjects presenting sensorineural deficits were included in the study. The DPOAE data were recorded using the detailed Cochlea-Scan threshold modality, and ASSR responses were assessed at 1.

A pilot study on assessing hearing threshold using the Cochlea-Scan.

Background: The objective of the study was to evaluate hearing threshold errors induced by the use of a new acoustical protocol (Cochlea-Scan).

Material/methods: Thirty-five normally hearing and 30 hearing-impaired adults were used in the study. Hearing threshold levels were assessed by pure tone audiometry (PTA) and the Cochlea-Scan (Fischer-Zoth/Natus) DPOAE protocols.

Preservation of residual hearing in children and post-lingually deafened adults after cochlear implantation: an initial study.

Objective: To investigate whether the residual hearing of severely hearing-impaired children and adults could be preserved using the soft surgery approach.

Patients And Methods: This project employed a prospective study design. All testing and surgery took place in the Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Warsaw, Poland.