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Paediatric auditory brainstem implant: overview and outcomes

Auditory brainstem implants were first used in adults with NF2. They have more recently become a technology option for children but what is the evidence to support this choice? This article discusses the evidence so far. Auditory brainstem implant is...

Middle ear muscle disorders: presentation, diagnosis and management

Patients often report symptoms relating to disorders of the middle ear muscles. Prof Bance gives us an overview of the anatomy and function, as well as guides our diagnosis and management. The middle ear muscles (MEMs) are a mystery, both...

Thyroid ultrasound elastography: does nodule stiffness predict malignancy?

Approximately 50% of the general population has a thyroid nodule while 5-15% of these are malignant [1]. A major challenge, therefore, is how to detect the malignant nodules for appropriate, timely treatment and avoid unnecessary, costly investigations for the remainder....

The ear-brain connection in cochlear implant users: learning to listen again

While the cochlear implant (CI) has been a tremendous success in restoring hearing to deaf individuals, the implantation outcome still varies across CI users [1]. Some demographic factors, such as duration of deafness, and peripheral factors, such as electrode placement,...

Sir Terence Edward Cawthorne (1902-1970): first Chairman of the BACO Academic Committee

Sir Terence Cawthorne was the chairman of the academic committee of the first BACO in 1963, and was Master of the second BACO in 1967. In this article, Neil Weir describes the life and career of one of the UK’s...

COVID-19 Video Resources

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The challenges of facemasks for people with hearing loss

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen an exponential increase in the use of face masks. Guidance around the globe varies on the use of face masks as an effective barrier to the coronavirus. Whereas in pre-covid...

Could social isolation be a factor in the link between hearing loss and dementia?

In 1802, Beethoven wrote to his brothers Carl and Johann about his hearing loss: “You men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn, or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause...

The role of metrics in studies of hearing and cognition

Introduction When perceiving sounds in real-world listening environments, older adults encounter several sources of degradation that can interfere with the perceptual process (Figure 1). Target signals (i.e. the sounds that a listener wants to focus on) have specific acoustic characteristics...

Neural plasticity and aural rehabilitation

Neural plasticity refers to an ability of the brain and central nervous system to change their structure and function or their reorganisation in response to environmental cues, experience, learning, behaviour, injury and / or diseases and treatments. Neural plasticity is...