Wideband frequency impedance for diagnosis of ossicular chain abnormality.

Background: The accurate estimation of the ossicular chain abnormalities using existing functional examinations has been difficult.

Aims/objectives: This study aimed to verify the accuracy of preoperative diagnosis of ossicular chain abnormalities using a wideband frequency impedance (WFI) meter, which can measure the dynamic characteristics of the middle ear.

Material And Methods: Retrospective cohort study.

Assessment package for language development in Japanese hearing-impaired children (ALADJIN) as a test battery for the development of practical communication.

Objectives: The measurement of language development in hearing-impaired children is an important step in assessing the appropriateness of an intervention. We proposed a set of language tests (the Assessment Package for Language Development in Japanese Hearing-Impaired Children [ALADJIN]) to evaluate the development of practical communication skills. This package consisted of communication skills (TQAID), comprehensive (PVT-R and SCTAW) and productive vocabulary (WFT), comprehensive and productive syntax (STA), and the STRAW.

Cross-modal integration and plastic changes revealed by lip movement, random-dot motion and sign languages in the hearing and deaf.

Sign language activates the auditory cortex of deaf subjects, which is evidence of cross-modal plasticity. Lip-reading (visual phonetics), which involves audio-visual integration, activates the auditory cortex of hearing subjects. To test whether audio-visual cross-modal plasticity occurs within areas involved in cross-modal integration, we used functional MRI to study seven prelingual deaf signers, 10 hearing non-signers and nine hearing signers.