Associations between heat wave during pregnancy and term birth weight outcomes: The PARIS birth cohort.

Background: Climate change will make extreme weather events more frequent in the 21st century. Extreme ambient temperatures during the prenatal period have been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm birth. It is unclear, however, whether heat waves during pregnancy impact fetal growth in apparently healthy term newborns.

Using prism adaptation to alleviate perception of unilateral tinnitus: A case study.

Tinnitus is described as an uncomfortable sound or noise heard by an individual in the absence of an external sound source. Treating this phantom perception remains difficult even if drug and nondrug therapies are used to alleviate symptoms. The present case study aimed to investigate whether prism adaptation could induce beneficial aftereffects in a tinnitus sufferer.

Traffic-related Air Pollution, Lung Function, and Host Vulnerability. New Insights from the PARIS Birth Cohort.

Rationale: Although the effects of traffic-related air pollution on respiratory exacerbations have been well documented, its impact on lung function in childhood remains unclear.

Objectives: Our aim was to investigate the associations of prenatal, early, and lifetime traffic-related air pollution exposure with lung function at 8-9 years studying possible effect modification by sex, sensitization at 8-9 years, and early lower respiratory tract infections.

Methods: We conducted this study among 788 children from the PARIS (Pollution and Asthma Risk: an Infant Study) birth cohort.

Efficacy of Hearing Aids on the Cognitive Status of Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Hearing Loss: A Multicenter Controlled Randomized Trial.

Background/objective: This study evaluated the cognitive benefit of hearing aids (HA) in older patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and hearing loss (HL) after a 6- and 12-month period of utilization.

Methods: A multicenter double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial was conducted in patients aged more than 65 years. A group was equipped with active HA for 6 months (active group) and a second group had placebo HA for 6 months (placebo group) followed by a secondary activation phase for a further 6 months (semi crossover procedure).

Do Hearing Aids Influence Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia and Quality of Life in Hearing Impaired Alzheimer's Disease Patients and Their Caregivers?

Background: It has been suggested that age-related hearing loss (ARHL) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are commonly associated.

Objective: The Alzheimer Disease, Presbycusis and Hearing Aids (ADPHA) clinical trial assessed the influence of hearing aids (HAs) on patients affected by ARHL and AD, as judged by behavioral symptoms and functional abilities, as well as patient and caregiver quality of life (QoL).

Methods: A multicenter double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial, with a semi-crossover procedure over 12 months, was conducted from 2006 to 2012.

Function and plasticity of the medial olivocochlear system in musicians: a review.

The outer hair cells of the organ of Corti are the target of abundant efferent projections from the olivocochlear system. This peripheral efferent auditory subsystem is currently thought to be modulated by central activity via corticofugal descending auditory system, and to modulate active cochlear micromechanics. Although the function of this efferent subsystem remains unclear, physiological, psychophysical, and modeling data suggest that it may be involved in ear protection against noise damage and auditory perception, especially in the presence of background noise.

Morphometry and localization of the temporal transverse Heschl's gyrus in magnetic resonance imaging: a guide for cortical stimulation of chronic tinnitus.

Purpose: Subjective tinnitus is considered a phantom auditory phenomenon. Recent studies show that electrical or magnetic stimulation of the cortex can alleviate some tinnitus. The usual target of the stimulation is the primary auditory cortex (PAC) on Heschl's gyrus (HG).

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation noise levels: methodological implications for tinnitus treatment.

Objective: To measure noise levels generated by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Intervention: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS).

Main Outcome Measures: rTMS noise levels measured in equivalent continuous sound level (LAeq) and in peak level (LC, peak), as a function of maximum power output of the equipment.

Speech processing: from peripheral to hemispheric asymmetry of the auditory system.

Language processing from the cochlea to auditory association cortices shows side-dependent specificities with an apparent left hemispheric dominance. The aim of this article was to propose to nonspeech specialists a didactic review of two complementary theories about hemispheric asymmetry in speech processing. Starting from anatomico-physiological and clinical observations of auditory asymmetry and interhemispheric connections, this review then exposes behavioral (dichotic listening paradigm) as well as functional (functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography) experiments that assessed hemispheric specialization for speech processing.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: hearing safety considerations.

Background: The guidelines for use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) advise frequent updating of rTMS safety guidelines and recommendations. Although rTMS can produce sound of more than 120 dB C, which is sufficient to induce hearing loss, the effect of rTMS noise on the hearing of both patients and rTMS practitioners is understudied.

Objective: This study investigated the effects of rTMS noise on subjects' hearing using otoacoustic emissions evoked by clicks (transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions, TEOAEs), which is an objective and sensitive method of cochlear exploration.

Otologics middle ear transducer with contralateral conventional hearing aid in severe sensorineural hearing loss: evolution during the first 24 months.

Objectives: To report the audiometric outcomes of patients with severe sensorineural hearing loss and who have been fitted with a Middle Ear Transducer (MET) on one side and fitted with an optimized conventional hearing aid on the other side.

Study Design: The MET fitting results were measured and compared with contralateral conventional hearing aids in a prospective study.

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

[Alzheimer's disease, hearing impairment and hearing-aids: a review].

Alzheimer's disease has major social and family consequences. However, therapeutic strategies are still limited. Non-pharmacological therapeutic approaches are known to be useful to protect the intellectual abilities of the patients, or at least, to slow down their decline.

Influence of musical and psychoacoustical training on pitch discrimination.

This study compared the influence of musical and psychoacoustical training on auditory pitch discrimination abilities. In a first experiment, pitch discrimination thresholds for pure and complex tones were measured in 30 classical musicians and 30 non-musicians, none of whom had prior psychoacoustical training. The non-musicians' mean thresholds were more than six times larger than those of the classical musicians initially, and still about four times larger after 2h of training using an adaptive two-interval forced-choice procedure; this difference is two to three times larger than suggested by previous studies.

Evidence for corticofugal modulation of peripheral auditory activity in humans.

Active cochlear micromechanisms, involved in auditory sensitivity, are modulated by the medial olivocochlear efferent system, which projects directly onto the organ of Corti. Both processes can be assessed non-invasively by means of evoked otoacoustic emissions. Animal experiments have revealed top-down control from the auditory cortex to peripheral auditory receptor, supported by anatomical descriptions of descending auditory pathways from auditory areas to the medial olivocochlear efferent system and organ of Corti.