Monitoring carboplatin ototoxicity with distortion-product otoacoustic emissions in children with retinoblastoma.

Objective: Carboplatin is a common chemotherapy agent with potential ototoxic side effects that is used to treat a variety of pediatric cancers, including retinoblastoma. Retinoblastoma is a malignant tumor of the retina that is usually diagnosed in young children. Distortion-product otoacoustic emission tests offer an effective method of monitoring for ototoxicity in young children.

Automated vocal analysis of naturalistic recordings from children with autism, language delay, and typical development.

For generations the study of vocal development and its role in language has been conducted laboriously, with human transcribers and analysts coding and taking measurements from small recorded samples. Our research illustrates a method to obtain measures of early speech development through automated analysis of massive quantities of day-long audio recordings collected naturalistically in children's homes. A primary goal is to provide insights into the development of infant control over infrastructural characteristics of speech through large-scale statistical analysis of strategically selected acoustic parameters.

Data-driven automated acoustic analysis of human infant vocalizations using neural network tools.

Acoustic analysis of infant vocalizations has typically employed traditional acoustic measures drawn from adult speech acoustics, such as f(0), duration, formant frequencies, amplitude, and pitch perturbation. Here an alternative and complementary method is proposed in which data-derived spectrographic features are central. 1-s-long spectrograms of vocalizations produced by six infants recorded longitudinally between ages 3 and 11 months are analyzed using a neural network consisting of a self-organizing map and a single-layer perceptron.

Short and long compression release times: speech understanding, real-world preferences, and association with cognitive ability.

Background: Several previous investigations have explored the relationship between cognitive abilities and speech understanding with short and long hearing aid compression release times in adult hearing aid wearers. Although there was consensus that such a relationship exists, the details have not been consistent across studies. This investigation was designed to further explore, extend, and generalize this topic.

Uniform degradation of auditory acuity in subjects with normal hearing leads to unequal precedence effects.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether a controlled unilateral reduction in auditory acuity at the higher audiometric frequencies would have an effect on the variability in responses obtained on a task designed to measure the precedence effect.

Design: The experiment was conducted with participants located in a large sound proof, anechoic room, and psychophysical tests were conducted with long-duration noise burst stimuli. Reduction in auditory acuity was created by inserting a specially designed earplug in the ear of participants with normal hearing.

Development of APHAB norms for WDRC hearing aids and comparisons with original norms.

Objectives: This study was undertaken for two purposes: First, to provide a comparison of subjective performance and benefit measured with the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) questionnaire for two groups. One group included hearing-impaired individuals using 1990s-era linear processing hearing aids. The other group included hearing-impaired individuals using more current wide-dynamic range compression (WDRC)-capable hearing aids fit using current practice protocols.

Speech understanding using surgical masks: a problem in health care?

Background: Successful communication is necessary in health-care environments. Yet the presence of noise in hospitals, operating rooms, and dental offices may have a deleterious effect on health-care personnel and patients understanding messages accurately. The presence of a surgical mask and hearing loss may further affect speech perception.

Hesitation patterns in third grade children's derived word productions.

Hesitations have been considered to serve both cognitive and linguistic functions. This study presents analyses of children's hesitations while producing English derived words with the suffix -ity. Two questions were considered: Do children's linguistic skills influence their use and frequency of hesitations when producing derived words, and do children's use of hesitations vary as a function of word frequency.

Analysis of distortion product otoacoustic emission spectra in normal-hearing adults.

Purpose: To evaluate the ability of distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) spectral characteristics to distinguish between ears with variable hearing sensitivity within the normal range.

Method: Distortion product grams (DP-grams) were acquired with primary tones decremented in 1/8-octave steps and primary-tone levels presented at 65 dB SPL (L1) and 45 dB SPL (L2) across an f2 frequency range of 842-7996 Hz from 22 normal-hearing adults (44 ears). Hearing thresholds of ears classified in Group A (n = 22) were better than ears classified in Group B (n = 22).

The 3-ounce (90-cc) water swallow challenge: a screening test for children with suspected oropharyngeal dysphagia.

Objectives: To investigate the clinical utility of the 3-ounce (90-cc) water swallow challenge alone to determine both aspiration status and oral feeding recommendations in children.

Design: Cross-sectional evaluation of a diagnostic test with a consecutive, referral-based sample.

Setting: Urban, tertiary care, teaching hospital.

Modification of otoacoustic emissions following ear-level exposure to MP3 player music.

The purpose of this study was to examine if a pre-determined exposure level and duration of MP3 player music would result in significant changes in cochlear function when measured with audiometric and physiological methods. Distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs), synchronized spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SSOAEs), and hearing thresholds were measured in 20 normal-hearing adults before and after a 30-minute MP3 player music exposure. DPOAEs were acquired with 65/45 dB SPL primary tones (f(2)=0.

Derivational morphophonology: exploring errors in third graders' productions.

Purpose: This study describes a post hoc analysis of segmental, stress, and syllabification errors in third graders' productions of derived English words with the stress-changing suffixes -ity and -ic. We investigated whether (a) derived word frequency influences error patterns, (b) stress and syllabification errors always co-occur, and (c) derived word stress pattern affects errors.

Method: A total of 1,900 productions from 81 third-grade children were transcribed and coded.

Current considerations in pediatric speech audiometry.

Current considerations in pediatric speech perception assessment are highlighted in this article with a focus on specific test principles and variables that must be addressed when evaluating speech perception performance in children. Existing test materials are reviewed with an emphasis on the level of sensitivity and standardization that they have for accurate assessment of a child's speech perception performance. A test battery approach is advocated because speech perception is an abstract construct, and in order to provide a comprehensive assessment of a child's capabilities, information is needed from several sources of concrete data.

The effects of monotic and dichotic interference tones on 40 Hz auditory steady-state responses in normal-hearing adults.

Auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs) recorded with simultaneous presentation of multiple tones modulated from 77-105 Hz exhibit frequency specificity and can be acquired with monotic or dichotic stimulation. This study examined the frequency specificity and dichotic characteristics of 40 Hz ASSRs recorded with amplitude-modulated (AM) probe tones and unmodulated (UM) or AM interfering tones in 27 normal-hearing adults. The effects on ASSR amplitudes of monotically or dichotically presented interfering tones of various frequency, modulation depth, and modulation rate were studied.

Vocal aging and adductor spasmodic dysphonia: response to botulinum toxin injection.

Aging of the larynx is characterized by involutional changes which alter its biomechanical and neural properties and create a biological environment that is different from younger counterparts. Illustrative anatomical examples are presented. This natural, non-disease process appears to set conditions which may influence the effectiveness of botulinum toxin injection and our expectations for its success.

Auditory scene analysis following unilateral inferior colliculus infarct.

Event-related potentials in the form of mismatch negativity were recorded to investigate auditory scene analysis capabilities in a person with a very circumscribed haemorrhagic lesion at the level of the right inferior colliculus. The results provide the first objective evidence that processing at the level of the inferior colliculus plays an important role in human auditory frequency discrimination. Moreover, the electrophysiological data suggest that following this unilateral lesion, the auditory pathways fail to reorganize efficiently.

Clinical utility of the 3-ounce water swallow test.

The 3-ounce water swallow test is frequently used to screen individuals for aspiration risk. Prior research concerning its clinical usefulness, however, is confounded by inadequate statistical power due to small sample sizes and varying methodologies. Importantly, research has been limited to a few select patient populations, thereby limiting the widespread generalizability and applicability of the 3-ounce test.

Objective and subjective hearing aid assessment outcomes.

Purpose: To determine whether specific sentence recognition assessments were sensitive enough to serve as objective outcome measurements that document subjective improvements in speech understanding with hearing aids.

Method: The Revised Speech Perception in Noise test (R-SPIN; R. C.

Third graders' metalinguistic skills, reading skills, and stress production in derived English words.

Purpose: This study examined relationships between 3rd graders' metalinguistic skills (phonological and morphological awareness), reading skills (decoding and word identification), and accurate stress production in derived words with stress-changing suffixes.

Method: Seventy-six typically developing 3rd-grade children (M=8;8[years;months]) participated in a battery of tests measuring general oral language ability, phonological and morphological awareness skills, reading skills, and derived word production.

Results: Significant positive correlations between stress accuracy in derived words and all other measures were found.

Effects of flexible fiberoptic endoscopy on pharyngeal swallow physiology.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine if the presence of a flexible fiberoptic endoscope in the pharynx affects swallow physiology.

Study Design: This was a prospective cohort study.

Subjects And Methods: Fourteen individuals with normal swallow function, 23 to 83 years of age, completed a videofluoroscopic swallow study with and without a 3.

Exploration of lexical-semantic factors affecting stress production in derived words.

Purpose: This study examined whether lexical frequency, semantic knowledge, or sentence context affect children's production of primary stress in derived words with stress-changing suffixes (e.g., -ity).

Predicting phonetic transcription agreement: insights from research in infant vocalizations.

The purpose of this study is to provide new perspectives on correlates of phonetic transcription agreement. Our research focuses on phonetic transcription and coding of infant vocalizations. The findings are presumed to be broadly applicable to other difficult cases of transcription, such as found in severe disorders of speech, which similarly result in low reliability for a variety of reasons.

Vibratory regime classification of infant phonation.

Infant phonation is highly variable in many respects, including the basic vibratory patterns by which the vocal tissues create acoustic signals. Previous studies have identified the regular occurrence of nonmodal phonation types in normal infant phonation. The glottis is like many oscillating systems that, because of nonlinear relationships among the elements, may vibrate in ways representing the deterministic patterns classified theoretically within the mathematical framework of nonlinear dynamics.

A weighted reliability measure for phonetic transcription.

Purpose: The purpose of the present work is to describe and illustrate the utility of a new tool for assessment of transcription agreement. Traditional measures have not characterized overall transcription agreement with sufficient resolution, specifically because they have often treated all phonetic differences between segments in transcriptions as equivalent, thus constituting an unweighted approach to agreement assessment. The measure the authors have developed calculates a weighted transcription agreement value based on principles derived from widely accepted tenets of phonological theory.