Melodic and articulatory development is delayed in deaf infants aged 2-4 months.

There is a paucity of knowledge about the early vocal development of infants with profound sensorineural hearing loss. In a search for potential differences in cooing vocalisations between hearing impaired (n = 12) and healthy infants (n = 12) aged 2-4 months, more than 2300 sounds were quantitatively analysed. Using objective criteria, laryngeal activity was analysed.

Intraoperative Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) Measurement During Vibroplasty in Congenital Aural Malformation.

Objective: To determine the optimal coupling efficiency by auditory brainstem response (ABR) in patients with aural atresia undergoing vibroplasty to ensure optimal sound transmission and minimize the need for revision surgery.

Study Design: Retrospective data analysis.

Setting: Tertiary referral center with an established active middle ear implant program.

The floating mass transducer as a microphone-a pilot study.

Background: This study investigates the inverse use of the Vibrant Soundbridge® Floating Mass Transducer (FMT; MED-EL, Innsbruck, Austria) as a microphone in a pilot test. Should this be applicable, it would open up interesting application possibilities, e.g.

[The Floating Mass Transducer as a microphone. German version].

Background: This study investigates the inverse use of the Vibrant Soundbridge® Floating Mass Transducer (FMT; MED-EL, Innsbruck, Austria) as a microphone in a pilot test. Should this be applicable, it would open up interesting application possibilities, e.g.

Intraoperative ABR measurements via the active middle ear implant vibrant soundbridge using different types of couplers.

Purpose: The Vibrant Soundbridge active middle ear implant is indicated for the treatment of different types of hearing loss. Recently, a novel system for determining implant performance based on auditory brainstem response (ABR) was developed. A reference value for the expected ABR hearing thresholds is determined on the base of a substantial number of measurements in this work.

The Stapes Head Coupler-A Flexible and Safe Option for Vibroplasty.

Objective: To investigate the surgical approach and the audiological outcome of a stapes head coupler in active middle ear implant surgery.

Study Design: Retrospective data analysis.

Setting: Tertiary referral center with a large active middle ear implant program.

Melody of Vocants: Fixed Pattern or Shaped by Hearing?

Introduction: Vocants as infants' first vocalic utterances are produced laryngeally while the vocal tract is maintained in a neutral position. These "primitive" sounds have sometimes been described as largely innate and, therefore, as sounding alike in both healthy and hearing-impaired young infants.

Objective: The objective of this study is to compare melody features of vocants, recorded during face-to-face interaction, between infants (N = 8) with profound congenital sensorineural hearing loss (HI group) and age-matched (N = 18) controls (CO) group.

Application of an Intraoperative Auditory Brainstem Response Measurement System in Active Middle Ear Implant Revision Surgery.

Objective: To investigate the benefit of intraoperative auditory brainstem response (ABR) measurements in revision active middle ear implant surgery.

Study Design: Retrospective data analysis.

Setting: Tertiary referral center with a large active middle ear implant program.

Do cochlear microphonics evoked by narrow-band chirp stimuli affect the objective detection of auditory steady-state responses?

Objective: It has recently been discussed whether hearing screening and hearing threshold assessment can accurately be completed using automated ASSR methods for children with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD). Possible causes for the claimed potential failures were investigated here.

Design: The study is based on the analysis of stored ASSR raw data.

Application of intentional facial nerve stimulation during cochlear implantation as an electrophysiological tool to estimate the intracochlear electrode position.

This proof of concept describes the use of evoked electromyographic (EMG) activation of the facial nerve for intraoperative monitoring of the electrode insertion during cochlear implantation (CI). Intraoperative EMG measurements from the facial nerve were conducted in nine patients undergoing CI implantation. Electric current pulses were emitted from contacts on the CI array during and immediately after electrode insertion.

Intraoperative Auditory Brainstem Response Measurements via the Vibrant Soundbridge Active Middle Ear Implant: Comparison of Two Methods.

Purpose: The Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB) active middle ear implant can be used to treat adults and children with hearing loss. Intraoperative measurements based on auditory brainstem response (ABR) allow the determination of the implant's performance. Two methods for stimulus presentation during ABR measurements via VSB will be compared.

Cry features of healthy neonates who passed their newborn hearing screening vs. those who did not.

Objectives: Temporal and fundamental frequency (fo) variations in infant cries provide critical insights into the maturity of vocal control and hearing performances. Earlier research has examined the use of vocalisation properties (in addition to hearing tests) to identify infants at risk of hearing impairment. The aim of this study was to determine whether such an approach could be suitable for neonates.

Intraoperative determination of coupling efficiency of Carina middle ear implant by means of auditory evoked potentials.

Objective: The Carina implant system is a fully implantable active middle ear implant, which can be coupled to various structures in the middle ear, depending on the nature of the hearing loss and the middle ear anatomy. Currently, there is only one method for determining the coupling efficiency of the actuator of this implant system, and this is limited to incus coupling.

Design: The proposed method is based on the intraoperative recording and evaluation of auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) while directly stimulating the hearing system via the actuator.

Using ASSR with narrow-band chirps to evaluate hearing in children and adults.

Purpose: All studies concerning the reliability and threshold prediction of auditory steady-state responses (ASSR) focused on a particular group of patients. The present article evaluates the use of narrow-band, chirp-evoked ASSR for testing hearing in adults and children of all ages and with different types of hearing loss, as well as normal hearing. The aims are: to determine whether there are possible influencing factors, mainly the degree of hearing loss; and to validate the clinical value of using ASSR with chirp-stimuli.

Evaluation and therapy outcome in children with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD).

Objectives: The aims of the present study are to: describe diagnostic findings in patients with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD); and demonstrate the outcomes of different therapies like hearing aids (HAs) or cochlear implantation.

Methods: 32 children were diagnosed and treated at our tertiary referral center and provided with HAs or cochlear implants (CIs). All of them underwent free-field or pure-tone audiometry.

Intraoperative Estimation of the Coupling Efficiency and Clinical Outcomes of the Vibrant Soundbridge Active Middle Ear Implant Using Auditory Brainstem Response Measurements.

Purpose This study intraoperatively measured the coupling efficiency of the Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB), with the aim of avoiding revision surgery due to insufficient outcome. This method can also be used to test the integrity of the implant at the end of the implantation surgery and to evaluate aided thresholds. In addition, this method makes it possible to objectively test how well the VSB has been fitted, provide assistance in fitting handicapped patients or children, evaluate hearing degradation, or test for a drop in coupling efficiency before revision surgeries.

Hearing Impairment in Old Age.

Background: Hearing impairment associated with old age (presbycusis) is becoming more common because the population is aging.

Methods: This review is based on publications retrieved by a selective search in Medline and Google Scholar, including individual studies, meta-analyses, guidelines, Cochrane reviews, and other reviews.

Results: The cardinal symptom of presbycusis is impaired communication due to bilateral hearing impairment.

Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials via air conduction delivered by either sequentially or quasi-simultaneously presented narrow-band chirp stimuli.

Objective: To produce sound-evoked cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs). These are widely used for the diagnosis of peripheral vestibulopathies and disturbances of the sacculocollic reflexes. The main, sensitive, frequency for eliciting cVEMPs has been shown to be around 500 Hz.

Characterization of vertigo and hearing loss in patients with Fabry disease.

Background: Fabry Disease (FD) is an X-linked hereditary lysosomal storage disorder which leads to a multisystemic intralysosomal accumulation of globotriaosylceramid (Gb3). Besides prominent renal and cardiac organ involvement, patients commonly complain about vestibulocochlear symptoms like high-frequency hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo. However, comprehensive data especially on vertigo remain scarce.

Comparison of click auditory brainstem response and chirp auditory steady-state response thresholds in children.

Objectives: During the last twenty years, auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs) are being used as an alternative and adjunct to the auditory brainstem response (ABR) for threshold estimation. This study aims at comparing and finding correlations between air-conduction thresholds using the traditional click ABR and the relatively recently used chirp ASSR test methods, for a large pediatric population.

Methods: One hundred and thirty children referred to our Clinic from Hospitals and Clinics of Western Greece ranging in age from 5 to 79 months (mean age = 32.

Surgical Impact of Coupling an Active Middle Ear Implant to Short Incus Process.

Introduction: Since 1996 the active middle-ear implant Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB) is used to treat mild-to-severe sensorineural hearing losses. The former standard surgical approach for incus vibroplasty included a mastoidectomy and a posterior tympanotomy, crimping the Floating-Mass Transducer (FMT) to the long incus process. The introduction of the short process (SP) coupler allows the attachment of the FMT to the incus body making the procedure of a posterior tympanotomy unnecessary.

Cardiac and renal dysfunction is associated with progressive hearing loss in patients with Fabry disease.

Background: Fabry disease (FD) is an X-linked recessive hereditary lysosomal storage disorder which results in the accumulation of globotriaosylceramid (Gb3) in tissues of kidney and heart as well as central and peripheral nervous system. Besides prominent renal and cardiac organ involvement, cochlear symptoms like high-frequency hearing loss and tinnitus are frequently found with yet no comprehensive data available in the literature.

Objective: To examine hearing loss in patients with FD depending on cardiac and renal function.

Device optimised chirp stimulus for ABR measurements with an active middle ear implant.

Objective: Active middle ear implants are widely used to treat adults and children with sensorineural, conductive, or mixed hearing loss. Currently, there is no adequate method to determine the performance of active middle ear implant systems.

Design: The proposed method is based on measuring the auditory brainstem response while stimulating the hearing system via the active middle ear implant (Vibrant Soundbridge, VSB; MEDEL, Austria).

Band limited chirp stimulation in vestibular evoked myogenic potentials.

Air conducted vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP) can be elicited by various low frequency and intense sound stimuli, mainly clicks or short tone bursts (STB). Chirp stimuli are increasingly used in diagnostic audiological evaluations as an effective means to obtain acoustically evoked responses in narrowed or extended frequency ranges. We hypothesized in this study that band limited chirp stimulation, which covers the main sensitivity range of sound sensitive otolithic afferents (around 500 Hz), might be useful for application in cervical and ocular VEMP to air conduction.

Automated auditory response detection: Further improvement of the statistical test strategy by using progressive test steps of iteration.

Objective: A common testing approach for automated ABR detection is to use a sequential test strategy. Repeated testing increases the error probability for a falsely detected response (Type I error rate). To compensate for this effect, the statistically critical test value must be increased with each test step.