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Improving cochlear-implant performance in the short- and medium-term

Can bespoke cochlear implant programming strategies reduce the variability seen in patient performance with an implant? Bob Carlyon reviews the current situation and gives us a glimpse of the future. Although many cochlear implant (CI) patients understand speech well in...

What do animal models tell us about tinnitus and hyperacusis?

Do animals have tinnitus? The obvious question to ask is: do animals have tinnitus? It is known that tinnitus is a conscious percept and as such affected by attention and not audible during sleep. For it to be demonstrated that...

In conversation with Professor Valentina Parma, Head of GCCR

Smell has long been regarded as the Cinderella of the senses, oft neglected by clinicians, the research community and lay public. The Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research looks to change all that. Our roving reporter, Abigail Walker, talks to its...

Optical cochlear implants: recent progress toward light-based hearing restoration

Optical cochlear implants combine optogenetics and light-based hardware to overcome limits of electrical CIs, promising sharper frequency resolution and more natural hearing. Cochlear implants (CIs) are among the most successful neuroprosthetic devices in modern medicine, restoring speech perception to hundreds...

Intratympanic steroids in Ménière's disease: what’s the evidence?

The days of drastic surgery for Ménière's disease are long gone. We know that intratympanic injections can deliver high doses of medication to the inner ear with minimal discomfort and minimal risk. But how do we choose from the myriad...

A psychophysical perspective on single-sided deafness and its treatment by cochlear implants

Bob Carlyon gives us a psychophysical perspective on the hearing benefits that can and cannot be achieved for patients with single-sided deafness with a cochlear implant, and discusses some of the challenges in maximising the effectiveness of the treatment. He...

Use of automated audiometry for faster patient access to audiology services?

Manual audiometry has long been the gold standard for establishing hearing thresholds. In recent years, a number of automated audiometry applications have reached the market. In this article, a team from Ireland have put a version of automated audiometry to...

SEQaBOO: SEQuencing a Baby for an Optimal Outcome

There are at least 15 countries now running genome sequencing projects. The team in Manchester, UK, and Boston, USA, share their SEQaBOO project. Abstract SEQaBOO (SEQuencing a Baby for an Optimal Outcome) will transform newborn hearing screening (NBHS) by bringing...

Genetics and the newborn hearing screen: the future is now

Eliot Shearer shares the progress being made with newborn hearing screening 60 years on from where it started, and future directions for identifying hearing loss using physiologic, genetic and cCMV screening. Newborn screening had its birth in the early 1960s,...

Mind the gap – developing a sustainable pipeline for hearing therapeutics

In this article, the authors describe three key challenges faced in developing hearing therapeutics. Collaboration between companies, sectors and disciplines will be key to finding solutions. The unmet need for therapies for hearing loss grows apace, with prevalence rising across...