Effect of Sound Source Location and Spatial Hearing on the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex.

Background: There have been conflicting results on the effect of auditory stimulation on the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) with some studies indicating suppression, enhancement, or no effect. No studies to date have assessed the effect of sound source location on VOR gain or the relationship between spatial hearing ability and VOR gain.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to determine if VOR gain was affected by moving the location of the sound source within participants and to determine if these effects were related to spatial hearing ability.

Mental tasking and rotary Chair-Induced vestibular nystagmus utilizing Video-Oculography.

To investigate whether the use of mental tasking, when compared to no mental task, affects measurement of nystagmus response with regard to gain, phase & symmetry, and artefact when utilising video-oculography (VOG) as the measurement technique in rotary chair testing (RCT). A within-subject repeated-measures design was utilised. Seventeen (17) healthy adults were evaluated (age 22-25 years).

Relationship Between Auditory and Visual Noise Acceptance in Normal-Hearing Listeners.

Background: Research has shown that hearing aid acceptance is closely related to how well an individual tolerates background noise, regardless of improved speech understanding in background noise. The acceptable noise level (ANL) test was developed to quantify background noise acceptance. The ANL test measures a listener's willingness to listen to speech in noise rather than their ability to understand speech in noise, and is clinically valuable as a predictor of hearing aid success.

Effect of Intensity Level and Speech Stimulus Type on the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex.

Background: Accurate vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) measurement requires control of extravestibular suppressive factors such as visual fixation. Although visual fixation is the dominant suppressor and has been extensively studied, the mechanisms underlying suppression from nonvisual factors of attention and auditory stimulation are less clear. It has been postulated that the nonvisual suppression of the VOR is the result of one of two mechanisms: (1) activation of auditory reception areas excites efferent pathways to the vestibular nuclei, thus inhibiting the VOR or (2) cortical modulation of the VOR results from directed attention, which implies a nonmodality-specific process.

The Effects of Extended Input Dynamic Range on Laboratory and Field-Trial Evaluations in Adult Hearing Aid Users.

Background: Digital hearing aids using a 16-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) provide a 96-dB input dynamic range. The level at which the ADC peak clips and distorts input signals ranges between 95 and 105 dB SPL. Recent research evaluated the effect of extending the input dynamic range in a commercially available hearing aid.

Mental Tasking and Caloric-Induced Vestibular Nystagmus Utilizing Videonystagmography.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of mental tasking on measures of the caloric vestibulo-ocular reflex utilizing videonystagmography as the measurement technique.

Method: A within-subjects repeated-measures design was utilized. Sixteen healthy adults were evaluated (13 women, 3 men; ages 19-31 years).