Auditory temporal resolution and backward masking in musicians with absolute pitch.

Among the many questions regarding the ability to effortlessly name musical notes without a reference, also known as absolute pitch, the neural processes by which this phenomenon operates are still a matter of debate. Although a perceptual subprocess is currently accepted by the literature, the participation of some aspects of auditory processing still needs to be determined. We conducted two experiments to investigate the relationship between absolute pitch and two aspects of auditory temporal processing, namely temporal resolution and backward masking.

Vestibular System Eletrophysiology: An Analysis of the Relationship between Hearing and Movement.

 Knowledge about the positive effects that music and dance bring, in its various forms, to the healthy human brain, is important not only in the context of basic neuroscience but may also strongly affect practices in neurorehabilitation.  To verify the relationship between hearing and movement and, specifically, to analyze the interference of professional dance practice and formal musical training in the magnitude of the vestibule-cervical and vestibular reflexes.  The sample consisted of 92 subjects, aged between 18 and 35 years old, 31 professional musicians, 31 ballet dancers, and 30 control subjects.

The Auditory Processing Domains Questionnaire (APDQ): Brazilian-Portuguese version.

Objective: The present study aimed to determine the fidelity, reliability, and internal validity of the APDQ when translated from English to Brazilian-Portuguese language.

Methods: The first phase included the APDQ translation into Brazilian-Portuguese including forward translation, translation assessment and back-translation in a group of 10 students. The second phase involved establishing the internal consistency and reliability of the APDQ Brazilian-Portuguese version.

Central Auditory Processing and Cognitive Functions in Children.

 Nowadays, there is no consensus on whether central auditory processing disorder is a primary or a secondary deficit to other cognitive deficits. A better understanding of the association between cognitive functions and central auditory skills may help elucidate this dilemma.  To investigate possible associations between auditory abilities and cognitive functions in schoolchildren.

Acoustically Controlled Binaural Auditory Training with Vocal Duets: Assessment and Effectiveness.

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a binaural auditory training program with vocal duets by comparing skills through outcomes from behavioral and electrophysiological assessment instruments at three moments: before the intervention, moment one (M1); immediately after training, moment two (M2); and 3 months after, moment three (M3).

Methods: This interventional, longitudinal, prospective, and uncontrolled study was approved by our Research Ethics Committee. Binaural auditory training with vocal duets (ATVD) was applied in 10 adults with normal audiometric thresholds and auditory processing disorders.

Cognitive performance and long-latency auditory evoked potentials: a study on aging.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between cognitive performance and long-latency auditory evoked potentials in an elderly population.

Methods: The sample consisted of adults between 20 and 58 years of age and elderly adults between 60 and 70 years of age. The screening procedures adopted were an inspection of the external auditory canal, tonal and vocal audiometry, tympanometry, brain stem auditory evoked potential, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test, and long-latency auditory evoked potential.

Voice Quality and Auditory Processing in Subjects with and Without Musical Experience.

Introduction: The relationship between voice and auditory processing is complex and has aroused increasing scientific interest in the last decades. Little is known about the relationship between voice quality and auditory processing in individuals with and without musical experience.

Objectives: To assess voice quality and auditory processing in subjects with and without musical experience.

Effect of auditory-motor training on auditory processing of school children.

Objective: To compare performance in Avaliação Simplificada do Processamento Auditivo Central and Scale of Auditory Behaviors scores before and after auditory and motor training.

Methods: Sample comprising 162 children aged 9 to 11 years and attending public schools in the city of São Paulo (SP), Brazil; 122 out of 162 children were allocated to one of three experimental groups: Multisensory; Auditory/Motor and Motor/Auditory. Experimental groups were submitted to 8 hours of auditory, visuospatial and motor stimulation over the course of 8 weeks.

Auditory skills of figure-ground and closure in air traffic controllers.

Purpose: To investigate the auditory skills of closure and figure-ground and factors associated with health, communication, and attention in air traffic controllers, and compare these variables with those of other civil and military servants.

Methods: Study participants were sixty adults with normal audiometric thresholds divided into two groups matched for age and gender: study group (SG), comprising 30 air traffic controllers and control group (CG), composed of 30 other military and civil servants. All participants were asked a number of questions regarding their health, communication, and attention, and underwent the Speech-in-Noise Test (SIN) to assess their closure skills and the Synthetic Sentence Identification Test - Ipsilateral Competitive Message (SSI-ICM) in monotic listening to evaluate their figure-ground abilities.

The Effect of Citalopram Versus a Placebo on Central Auditory Processing in the Elderly.

Objective: Evaluate the effects of therapy with citalopram on the central auditory processing in the elderly measured by central auditory tests.

Study Design: Prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

Auditory behavior and auditory temporal resolution in children with sleep-disordered breathing.

Objective: Intermittent hypoxia caused by obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) may lead to damage in brain areas associated to auditory processing. The aim of this study was to compare children with OSAS or primary snoring (PS) to children without sleep-disordered breathing with regard to their performance on the Gaps-in-Noise (GIN) test and the Scale of Auditory Behaviors (SAB) questionnaire.

Methods: Thirty-seven children (6-12 years old) were submitted to sleep anamnesis and in-lab night-long polysomnography.

Test-Retest of Long Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials (P300) with Pure Tone and Speech Stimuli.

 Long latency auditory evoked potentials, especially P300, have been used for clinical evaluation of mental processing. Many factors can interfere with Auditory Evoked Potential - P300 results, suggesting large intra and inter-subject variations.  The objective of the study was to identify the reliability of P3 components (latency and amplitude) over 4-6 weeks and the most stable auditory stimulus with the best test-retest agreement.

Auditory Processing in Children with Migraine: A Controlled Study.

 This study aimed to investigate central auditory processing performance in children with migraine and compared with controls without headache.  Twenty-eight children of both sexes, aged between 8 and 12 years, diagnosed with migraine with and without aura, and a control group of the same age range and with no headache history, were included. Gaps-in-noise (GIN), duration pattern test (DPT), synthetic sentence identification (SSI) test, and nonverbal dichotic test (NVDT) were used to assess central auditory processing performance.

Figure-background in dichotic task and their relation to skills untrained.

Purposes: To evaluate the effectiveness of auditory training in dichotic task and to compare the responses of trained skills with the responses of untrained skills, after 4-8 weeks.

Methods: Nineteen subjects, aged 12-15 years, underwent an auditory training based on dichotic interaural intensity difference (DIID), organized in eight sessions, each lasting 50 min. The assessment of auditory processing was conducted in three stages: before the intervention, after the intervention, and in the middle and at the end of the training.

Reproducibility (test-retest) of vestibular evoked myogenic potential.

Introduction: There is still no consensus in the literature as to the best acoustic stimulus for capturing vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP). Low-frequency tone bursts are generally more effective than high-frequency, but recent studies still use clicks. Reproducibility is an important analytical parameter to observe the reliability of responses.

Central auditory processing and migraine: a controlled study.

Background: This study aimed to verify and compare central auditory processing (CAP) performance in migraine with and without aura patients and healthy controls.

Methods: Forty-one volunteers of both genders, aged between 18 and 40 years, diagnosed with migraine with and without aura by the criteria of "The International Classification of Headache Disorders" (ICDH-3 beta) and a control group of the same age range and with no headache history, were included. Gaps-in-noise (GIN), Duration Pattern test (DPT) and Dichotic Digits Test (DDT) tests were used to assess central auditory processing performance.

Development of a test of suprathreshold acuity in noise in Brazilian Portuguese: a new method for hearing screening and surveillance.

This paper describes the development of a speech-in-noise test for hearing screening and surveillance in Brazilian Portuguese based on the evaluation of suprathreshold acuity performances. The SUN test (Speech Understanding in Noise) consists of a list of intervocalic consonants in noise presented in a multiple-choice paradigm by means of a touch screen. The test provides one out of three possible results: "a hearing check is recommended" (red light), "a hearing check would be advisable" (yellow light), and "no hearing difficulties" (green light) (Paglialonga et al.

Ototoxicity evaluation in medulloblastoma patients treated with involved field boost using intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT): a retrospective review.

Background: Ototoxicity is a known side effect of combined radiation therapy and cisplatin chemotherapy for the treatment of medulloblastoma. The delivery of an involved field boost by intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) may reduce the dose to the inner ear when compared with conventional radiotherapy. The dose of cisplatin may also affect the risk of ototoxicity.

Amplitude modulated vestibular evoked myogenic responses: a study of carrier and modulating frequencies.

Conclusion: Responses with greater amplitude were recorded when carrier frequencies were modulated at 37, 40, and 43 Hz. These responses can be recorded even in patients with significant sensorineural hearing loss, from the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle for a 500 Hz tone, 100% modulated at 40 Hz.

Objective: To determine the best carrier and modulating frequencies to evoke steady-state myogenic responses.

Sound localization and occupational noise.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the effects of occupational noise on sound localization in different spatial planes and frequencies among normal hearing firefighters.

Method: A total of 29 adults with pure-tone hearing thresholds below 25 dB took part in the study. The participants were divided into a group of 19 firefighters exposed to occupational noise and a control group of 10 adults who were not exposed to such noise.

Scale of Auditory Behaviors and auditory behavior tests for auditory processing assessment in Portuguese children.

Purpose: The objective of this research was to assess the auditory abilities of Portuguese children and compare such abilities to the score of the Scale of Auditory Behaviors (SAB).

Methods: Fifty-one children were evaluated with audiometry, speech audiometry, acoustic immittance measures, and eight behavioral tests involving dichotic listening, monotic listening, temporal processing, and sound localization. Their parents filled in the SAB questionnaire adapted to European A.

Non-flat audiograms in sensorineural hearing loss and speech perception.

Objective: The audibility thresholds for the sound frequency of 137 upward- and downward-sloping audiograms showing sensorineural hearing loss were selected and analyzed in conjunction with speech recognition thresholds obtained from individuals seen at a public otolaryngology clinic to determine which frequencies in slope audiograms best represent speech recognition thresholds.

Method: The linear regression model and mean square error were used to determine the associations between the threshold values.

Result: The mean square error identified larger errors when using thresholds of 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz than when using audibility thresholds of 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz.

Neuropsychological aspects of 10-year-old children.

Objective: To characterize neuropsychological aspects of 10-year-old children.

Method: Out of 30 children, 26 cognitively normal 10-year-old public school students answered tests extracted from Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery: Children's Revision. The study was transversal.

Pitch-matching scanning: comparison of musicians and non-musicians' performance.

Purpose: To develop a simple and quick-to-apply procedure for pitch-matching scanning that contains vocal imitation tasks of musical sounds of different tones and the temporal ordination of three different tones; to verify its applicability, by comparing the performance of musicians and non-musicians.

Methods: Participants were 32 adults of both genders without vocal, hearing and/or auditory processing complaints. They were equally divided into two groups: musicians group--MG and non-musicians group--NMG.

The influence of cognitive aspects and auditory processes on the hearing aid acclimatization in the elderly.

Purpose: To verify the speech recognition processes in a monoaural task and in a binaural integration task with dichotic listening, and to compare them to the cognitive processing in elderly subjects pre and post hearing aid acclimatization.

Methods: Participants were 60 elderly subjects of both genders, ranging in age from 61 to 85 years. They were evaluated for cognitive aspects by means of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS-Cog).