Hearing

Scientists have successfully used gene therapy to reverse genetic hearing loss in mice. The team corrected a gene mutation that affects sensory hair cells in the ear, and the new jigsaw-like method could help improve gene therapy for other disorders.

Eardrum perforations are painful, impair hearing and are tricky to repair. The PhonoGraft, developed at Harvard, is a 3D-printed implant that can patch up damage by encouraging natural cells to regrow, and now it’s ready for commercial production.

An 11-year study has found that difficulty hearing speech in noisy environments may be an early sign of dementia. The next step will be to investigate whether treating mid-life hearing impairments can reduce the risk of dementia developing later on.

Although cochlear implants do allow some deaf people to hear again, adjusting the devices to individual users can be challenging. An experimental new implant is designed to help in that regard, by reading the user's brain waves.

A number of hearing aids are now able to amplify one person's voice while filtering out distracting background voices. Well, it turns out that female tree frogs are able to perform a similar task, in order to hear the mating calls of males.

Examination of noise pollution data before and then during the stay-at-home and social distancing orders implemented in response to the coronavirus pandemic has shown that people’s average exposure to environmental noise dropped by nearly half.

Tinnitus is an aggravating disorder, causing sufferers to constantly hear a ringing in their ears. A new system could help, though, by simultaneously zapping their tongue and delivering sounds to their ears.

Scientists at Ohio State University have produced the first ever atomic-level mapping of tiny filaments inside our ears, offering unprecedented insights into a key mechanism of the organ and how hearing loss can result when things go awry.

Hearing aids may indeed be commonly used and relied upon in the First World, but they're still too expensive for many people in developing nations. The experimental LoCHAid device, however, is aimed at changing that.

Scientists investigating regenerative treatments for hearing loss have made an important advance, demonstrating how a single protein can determine whether embryonic hair cells mature into adult hair cells, or follow a different path entirely.

Exposure to sustained loud noise often results in hearing loss. But now, biologists are testing drugs they call “chemical earmuffs” in mice, which could prevent hearing loss without affecting the volume or quality of sound.

Research led by the University of Arizona may have uncovered a new potential treatment target for tinnitus – not the ears but within the brain itself. The study suggests that neuroinflammation is to blame, and could be a new way to fix the problem.