Hearing Controls Research Articles

Neuroprosthesis Devices Based on Micro- and Nanosensors: A Systematic Review

Background. A neuroprosthesis (NP) is a medical device that compensates and restores functionality of neural dysfunctions affected by different pathologies and conditions. To this end, an implantable NP (INP) must monitor and electrically stimulate neuronal small structures in the peripheral and central nervous system. Therefore, one of the most important parts of INPs are the sensors and electrodes since their size, resolution, and material are key for their design and performance. Currently, most of the studies focus only on the INP application but do not show the technical considerations of the sensors. Objective. This paper is a systematic literature review that summarizes and synthesizes implantable micro- and nanosensors/electrodes used in INPs for sensing and stimulating tissues. Data Sources. Articles and patents published in English were searched from electronic databases. No restrictions were made in terms of country or journal. Study Selection. All reports related to sensors/electrodes applied in INPs were included, focusing on micro- and nanotechnologies. Main Outcome Measures. Performance and potential profit. Results. There was a total of 153 selected articles from the 2010 to June 2020 period, of which 16 were about cardiac pacemakers, 15 cochlear implants, 13 retinal prosthesis, 31 deep brain stimulation, 6 bladder implants, and 18 implantable motor NPs. All those INPs are used for support or recovery of neural functions for hearing, seeing, pacing, and motor control, as well as bladder and bowel control. Micro- and nanosensors for signal stimulation and recording have four special requirements to meet: biocompatibility, long-term reliability, high selectivity, and low-energy consumption. Current and future considerations in sensor/electrode design should focus on improving efficiency and safety. This review is a first approximation for those who work on INP design; it offers an idea of the complexity on the matter and can guide them to specific references on the subject.

فعالية برنامج إرشادي انتقائي في خفض سلوک الاستقواء لدى التلاميذ العاديين نحو أقرانهم ضعاف السمع المدمجين في مدارس التعليم العام وأثره على القلق الاجتماعي لديهم The effectiveness of a selective counseling program in reducing the bullying behavior of ordinary students towards their hearing hard peers mainstreamed in general education schools and its impact on th

استهدف البحث التحقق من فعالیة برنامج إرشادی انتقائی فی خفض سلوک الاستقواء لدى التلامیذ العادیین والتعرف على أثره فی خفض شعور التلامیذ ضعاف السمع المدمجین بمدارس التعلیم العام بالقلق الاجتماعی. تکونت عینة البحث من (42) تلمیذا ممن حصلوا على الأرباعی الأعلى على مقیاس سلوک الاستقواء، و (12) اثنا عشر تلمیذا ضعیف سمع یعانون من القلق الاجتماعی، وتم تقسیم عینة الدراسة عشوائیا إلى مجموعتین: تجریبیة (22) تلمیذا عادیا و(6) تلامیذ من ضعاف السمع، وضابطة (20) تلمیذا عادیا و(6) تلامیذ من ضعاف السمع، وتم التحقق من تکافؤ مجموعتی الدراسة قبل تطبیق البرنامج الإرشادی على التلامیذ العادیین. وأسفرت نتائج البحث عن: وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائیة بین متوسطی درجات المجموعة التجریبیة والمجموعة الضابطة على مقیاس سلوک الاستقواء لصالح المجموعة التجریبیة، وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائیة بین متوسطی درجات المجموعة التجریبیة فی القیاسین القبلی والبعدی على مقیاس سلوک الاستقواء لصالح القیاس البعدی، عدم وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائیة بین متوسطی درجات المجموعة التجریبیة فی القیاسین البعدی والتتابعی على أبعاد مقیاس سلوک الاستقواء عدا بعد الاستقواء الاجتماعی، وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائیة بین متوسطی رتب درجات المجموعة التجریبیة والمجموعة الضابطة فی القیاس البعدی على مقیاس القلق الاجتماعی لصالح المجموعة التجریبیة عدا بعد العزلة الاجتماعیة، وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائیة بین متوسطی رتب درجات القیاسین القبلی والبعدی لدى المجموعة التجریبیة على مقیاس القلق الاجتماعی لصالح القیاس البعدی عدا بعد العزلة الاجتماعیة. Abstract:This study aims to test the effectiveness of a selective counseling program to reduce the bullying behavior of ordinary students and to identify its effect in reducing the social anxiety sense among hard hearing students. The study sample consists of (42) students who received the highest quartile on the scale of bullying behavior, and (12) hard hearing students with social anxiety. The study sample is divided into two groups: experimental (22) ordinary students, (6) hard hearing ones and control (20) ordinary students and (6) hard hearing ones, and the equivalence of the study groups is verified before the application of the counseling program. The research results are:There're statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group and the control group on the scale of the bullying behavior for the experimental group, There're statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group in the pre-test and the post test on the scale of the bullying behavior for the pre-test, There're statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group in the post-test and follow-up test on dimensions of the scale of bullying behavior except the social bullying, There're statistically significant differences between the mean ranks of the experimental group and the control group in the post-test on the social anxiety scale for the experimental group except the social isolation, There're statistically significant differences between the mean ranks of the experimental group in the post-test and follow-up test on the social anxiety scale for the post test, except social isolation.

Evaluating tests of binaural hearing for hearing impaired listeners using a portable device

Individuals with sensorineural hearing loss may have similar monaural thresholds (i.e., pure tone audiogram) but perform quite differently on tests of speech-in-noise. Additional testing using complex, binaural signals may be able to differentiate individuals with similar pure-tone hearing. Here, individuals with mild-to-moderate hearing losses were evaluated using tests of spectral, temporal, and spectrotemporal modulation, diotic and dichotic frequency modulation, gap detection, 2 kHz tone-in-noise, and spatial release from masking. Binaural psychoacoustic measurements were evaluated on an iPad using the Portable Automated Rapid Test (PART) app. Normal hearing listeners were evaluated as controls. Normal hearing results were similar to normative data previously collected by Lelo de Larrea-Mancera and colleagues (2020) and hearing-impaired results were elevated for most binaural measurements evaluated compared to normal hearing controls. Binaural psychoacoustic data were successfully measured for individuals with mild-to-moderate amounts of hearing loss using a portable system. Results show that evaluating complex stimuli on clinical populations using a portable device is feasible. Additionally, if accomplished on a larger scale the current test battery may likely add useful information on how hearing-impaired listeners process complex binaural stimuli and could compliment current clinical diagnostic test battery and, potentially, guide hearing aid fittings.

Effect of Hearing Aid Acclimatization on Speech-in-Noise Perception and Its Relationship With Changes in Auditory Long Latency Responses.

Objective The study attempted to track speech-in-noise perception and auditory long latency responses (ALLRs) over a period of hearing aid use in naïve hearing aid users. The primary aim was to investigate the relationship of change in speech-in-noise perception with the change in ALLRs. Method Thirty adults with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss (clinical group) and 17 adults with normal hearing (control group) in the age range of 23-60 years participated in the study. Syllable identification in noise (SIN) and ALLRs in noise were measured three times (three sessions) over a period of 2 months of hearing aid use. Results Results showed a significant increase in SIN and a decrease in the latency of ALLRs in the later sessions compared to the baseline session in the clinical group. However, the changes seen across the three sessions in the control group were not statistically significant. The magnitude of change in ALLRs seen in the clinical group did not significantly correlate with the change in SIN scores seen in them. Conclusions The study provides evidence for improvements in speech perception in noise and in processing time of auditory cortical areas with hearing aid acclimatization. However, it is important to note that the improvement in ALLRs does not assure improvement in speech perception in noise.

Electrophysiological Dynamics of Visual-Tactile Temporal Order Perception in Early Deaf Adults.

Studies of compensatory plasticity in early deaf (ED) individuals have mainly focused on unisensory processing, and on spatial rather than temporal coding. However, precise discrimination of the temporal relationship between stimuli is imperative for successful perception of and interaction with the complex, multimodal environment. Although the properties of cross-modal temporal processing have been extensively studied in neurotypical populations, remarkably little is known about how the loss of one sense impacts the integrity of temporal interactions among the remaining senses. To understand how auditory deprivation affects multisensory temporal interactions, ED and age-matched normal hearing (NH) controls performed a visual-tactile temporal order judgment task in which visual and tactile stimuli were separated by varying stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) and subjects had to discern the leading stimulus. Participants performed the task while EEG data were recorded. Group averaged event-related potential waveforms were compared between groups in occipital and fronto-central electrodes. Despite similar temporal order sensitivities and performance accuracy, ED had larger visual P100 amplitudes for all SOA levels and larger tactile N140 amplitudes for the shortest asynchronous (± 30 ms) and synchronous SOA levels. The enhanced signal strength reflected in these components from ED adults are discussed in terms of compensatory recruitment of cortical areas for visual-tactile processing. In addition, ED adults had similar tactile P200 amplitudes as NH but longer P200 latencies suggesting reduced efficiency in later processing of tactile information. Overall, these results suggest that greater responses by ED for early processing of visual and tactile signals are likely critical for maintained performance in visual-tactile temporal order discrimination.

Comparison of the effect Of three treatment interventions for the control of Meniere\u2019s disease: a randomized control trial

BackgroundIntratympanic (IT) dexamethasone, with or without ventilation tube, is widely used to control vertigo in Meniere’s disease (MD) patients. Some authors believe that the tube on its own has a role in the control of MD symptoms. The authors’ goal was to compare the effects of them on multiple sets of patients. A three arms randomized control trial was conducted on 60 patients ( both males and females; age range, 30–60 years; mean age, 47 years) who were diagnosed with MD according to the 1995 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) Foundation guidelines. The study was conducted at the Otolaryngology Department between May 2016 and May 2018. They were divided into three groups, with 20 patients in each group. The first group received direct IT dexamethasone, the second group received IT dexamethasone through a grommet tube, and the third received saline through grommet.ResultsNo treatment modality showed statistically significant improvement regarding both hearing and vertigo control at follow-up periods. However, comparison of patients with disease duration of 1 year and patients with duration of 5 years in the total sample of patients showed that patients with 1-year duration showed statistically significant higher percentage of improvement in pure tone audiometry (PTA) and vertigo control at all follow-up periods.ConclusionsNo golden standard in MD treatment; however, initial improvement may be explained as a result of the anti-inflammatory effect of steroids and/or the pressure release due to tube insertion; yet, the progressive course of the disease may diminish that improvement over time. Thus, early intervention either by direct IT injection or through grommet tube or by grommet placement alone can affect treatment outcomes.

EEG frequency-tagging demonstrates increased left hemispheric involvement and crossmodal plasticity for face processing in congenitally deaf signers

In humans, face-processing relies on a network of brain regions predominantly in the right occipito-temporal cortex. We tested congenitally deaf (CD) signers and matched hearing controls (HC) to investigate the experience dependence of the cortical organization of face processing. Specifically, we used EEG frequency-tagging to evaluate: (1) Face-Object Categorization, (2) Emotional Facial-Expression Discrimination and (3) Individual Face Discrimination. The EEG was recorded to visual stimuli presented at a rate of 6 Hz, with oddball stimuli at a rate of 1.2 Hz. In all three experiments and in both groups, significant face discriminative responses were found. Face-Object categorization was associated to a relative increased involvement of the left hemisphere in CD individuals compared to HC individuals. A similar trend was observed for Emotional Facial-Expression discrimination but not for Individual Face Discrimination. Source reconstruction suggested a greater activation of the auditory cortices in the CD group for Individual Face Discrimination. These findings suggest that the experience dependence of the relative contribution of the two hemispheres as well as crossmodal plasticity vary with different aspects of face processing.

Variant c.2158-2A>G in MANBA is an important and frequent cause of hereditary hearing loss and beta-mannosidosis among the Czech and Slovak Roma population- evidence for a new ethnic-specific variant

BackgroundThe Roma are a European ethnic minority threatened by several recessive diseases.Variants in MANBA cause a rare lysosomal storage disorder named beta-mannosidosis whose clinical manifestation includes deafness and mental retardation. Since 1986, only 23 patients with beta-mannosidosis and biallelic MANBA variants have been described worldwide.ResultsWe now report on further 10 beta-mannosidosis patients of Roma origin from eight families in the Czech and Slovak Republics with hearing loss, mental retardation and homozygous pathogenic variants in MANBA.MANBA variant c.2158-2A>G screening among 345 anonymized normal hearing controls from Roma populations revealed a carrier/heterozygote frequency of 3.77%. This is about 925 times higher than the frequency of this variant in the gnomAD public database and classifies the c.2158-2A>G variant as a prevalent, ethnic-specific variant causing hearing loss and mental retardation in a homozygous state. The frequency of heterozygotes/carriers is similar to another pathogenic variant c.71G>A (p.W24*) in GJB2, regarded as the most frequent variant causing deafness in Roma populations.ConlcusionBeta-mannosidosis, due to a homozygous c.2158-2A>G MANBA variant, is an important and previously unknown cause of hearing loss and mental retardation among Central European Roma.

Increased Right Posterior STS Recruitment Without Enhanced Directional-Tuning During Tactile Motion Processing in Early Deaf Individuals.

Upon early sensory deprivation, the remaining modalities often exhibit cross-modal reorganization, such as primary auditory cortex (PAC) recruitment for visual motion processing in early deafness (ED). Previous studies of compensatory plasticity in ED individuals have given less attention to tactile motion processing. In the current study, we aimed to examine the effects of early auditory deprivation on tactile motion processing. We simulated four directions of tactile motion on each participant’s right index finger and characterized their tactile motion responses and directional-tuning profiles using population receptive field analysis. Similar tactile motion responses were found within primary (SI) and secondary (SII) somatosensory cortices between ED and hearing control groups, whereas ED individuals showed a reduced proportion of voxels with directionally tuned responses in SI contralateral to stimulation. There were also significant but minimal responses to tactile motion within PAC for both groups. While early deaf individuals show significantly larger recruitment of right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) region upon tactile motion stimulation, there was no evidence of enhanced directional tuning. Greater recruitment of right pSTS region is consistent with prior studies reporting reorganization of multimodal areas due to sensory deprivation. The absence of increased directional tuning within the right pSTS region may suggest a more distributed population of neurons dedicated to processing tactile spatial information as a consequence of early auditory deprivation.

Probing language processing in cochlear implant users with visual word recognition: effects of lexical and orthographic word properties

ABSTRACT Deaf individuals who learned a spoken language with the aid of a cochlear implant (CI) often experience difficulties with reading. In the present study, we investigate this issue by assessing the impact of lexical and orthographic predictors on visual word recognition in early and late deaf CI-users. Early deaf CI-users were comparable to age-matched hearing controls, for both response accuracy and latencies, whereas late deaf CI-users were slower albeit similarly accurate with respect to age-matched controls. Analyses of the impact of lexical and orthographic predictors, however, revealed that early deaf-CI users were slower than controls in recognising low frequency words and words with high proportion of consonants. In conclusion, early deaf individuals who developed their language using a CI show qualitative differences in visual word processing, above and beyond the overall performance. This suggests that typical overall performance may emerge also in the context of atypical lexical and word form representations.

Place-Pitch Interval Perception With a Cochlear Implant.

Pitch is poorly perceived by cochlear implant (CI) users. However, as it is not well understood how pitch is encoded with electric stimulation, improving pitch representation with a CI is challenging. Changes in place of stimulation along the cochlea have been described as changes in pitch and can be accurately ranked by CI users. However, it remains unknown if place-pitch can be used to encode musical intervals, which are a necessary attribute of pitch. The objective of these experiments is to determine if place-pitch coding can be used to represent musical intervals with a CI. In the first experiment, 10 CI users and 10 normal hearing (NH) controls were tested on their sensitivity to changes in the semitone spacing between each of the notes in the melody "Happy Birthday." The changes were implemented by uniformly expanding or compressing the frequency differences between each note in the melody. The participant's task was to scale how "out-of-tune" the melody was for various semitone spacing distortions. The notes were represented by pure-tones ≥440 Hz to minimize potential useful temporal information from the stimuli. A second experiment replicated the first experiment using single-sided deafened CI users allowing for a within-subject control. A third experiment verified that the CI users who participated in Experiment 1 were each able to determine pitch direction reliably. Unlike NH listeners, CI listeners often ranked all distortions of interval spacing similarly in both the first and second experiment, and no effect of interval spacing was detected across CI users. Some participants found distorted interval spacings to be less out-of-tune than the nominally correct interval spacings. However, these patterns were inconsistent across listeners. Although performance was better for the NH listeners, the third experiment demonstrated that the CI listeners were able to reliably identify changes in pitch direction from place-pitch coding. The data suggest that place-pitch intervals are not properly represented through a CI sound processor. Some limited support is found for place-pitch being useful for interval encoding as some participants demonstrated improved ratings for certain interval distortions. Presumably the interval representation for these participants could be improved by a change to the frequencies represented by each electrode. However, as these patterns vary across listeners, there is not a universal correction to frequency representation that will solve this issue. As results are similar for single-sided deafened CI users, the limitations in ratings are likely not limited by an eroded representation of the melody caused by an extended duration of deafness.

A Novel Bone Conduction Hearing System May Improve Memory Function in Children with Single Side Hearing loss: A Case-Control Study.

To evaluate the effects of an adhesive adapter prosthesis (AAP) on memory function in pediatric subjects with single side hearing loss (SSHL). Case-control study. 19 pediatric subjects with mild to moderate SSHL treated with AAP and 15 subjects with normal hearing (control group) were included in this study. Working and short-term memory functions were tested in all subjects, in silence and noise conditions. In SSHL subjects, tests were performed before the AAP was applied (T0) and at 1-month (T1) follow-up. The control group was tested once. AAP significantly improved working memory function in noise as measured at T1 (p<0.01) compared with T0, but T1 scores in children with SSHL remained significantly different from the ones of the control group (p<0.01). AAP also significantly improved short- term memory function test scores at T1 compared with T0 (p<0.01), but despite being in the normal range for the subjects' age, the scores remained significantly different from those of the control group (p<0.01). In pediatric subjects with mild, moderate, and moderate-severe SSHL, restoration of bilateral hearing through AAP improved short-term memory function and working memory function in noise, as measured at 1 month follow-up; however, AAP did not seem to lead to a full restoration of such functions as measured by a comparison with healthy controls. Further studies with longer follow-ups might help elucidate whether AAP can elicit further improvements in memory functions.

Behavioural performance and self-report measures in children with unilateral hearing loss due to congenital aural atresia

ObjectiveTo explore the behavioural and functional performance of a group of children with conductive unilateral hearing loss (UHL) due to congenital aural atresia. MethodTwelve children aged 7 to 16 years (Mage 10.0, SD 3.1 years) formed the UHL group and 15 age-matched children (Mage 9.5, SD 3.6 years) with normal hearing formed the control group. Auditory skills were assessed using tests of sound localisation, spatial speech perception in noise, and self-ratings of auditory abilities (Listening Inventory for Education; LIFE and Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing scale; SSQ). ResultsWhen speech was directed to the good ear, performance was poorer than for normal hearing controls. Sound localisation abilities were impaired in children with UHL. Children with UHL reported higher levels of difficulties in classroom settings compared to children with normal hearing, particularly for activities involving listening in noise and focused listening activities. Older children self-report and parents report difficulties for their children across all SSQ scales. ConclusionsChildren with UHL showed a wide range of auditory difficulties. As expected, speech recognition in noise differed from controls. Sound localisation abilities were variable; greater variability was seen for right ear hearing losses suggesting that some of these children may have developed compensatory mechanisms. Younger children identified listening difficulties for school situations where focussed auditory attention was needed. Older children and parents reported greatest difficulty for activities requiring perception of the direction, distance, and movement of sound. Higher levels of effort and inability to ignore sounds were reported as major difficulties.

Early deafness leads to re-shaping of functional connectivity beyond the auditory cortex

Early sensory deprivation, such as deafness, shapes brain development in multiple ways. Deprived auditory areas become engaged in the processing of stimuli from the remaining modalities and in high-level cognitive tasks. Yet, structural and functional changes were also observed in non-deprived brain areas, which may suggest the whole-brain network changes in deaf individuals. To explore this possibility, we compared the resting-state functional network organization of the brain in early deaf adults and hearing controls and examined global network segregation and integration. Relative to hearing controls, deaf adults exhibited decreased network segregation and an altered modular structure. In the deaf, regions of the salience network were coupled with the fronto-parietal network, while in the hearing controls, they were coupled with other large-scale networks. Deaf adults showed weaker connections between auditory and somatomotor regions, stronger coupling between the fronto-parietal network and several other large-scale networks (visual, memory, cingulo-opercular and somatomotor), and an enlargement of the default mode network. Our findings suggest that brain plasticity in deaf adults is not limited to changes in the auditory cortex but additionally alters the coupling between other large-scale networks and the development of functional brain modules. These widespread functional connectivity changes may provide a mechanism for the superior behavioral performance of the deaf in visual and attentional tasks.

Effect of Hearing Impairment on Behavior and Communication of Children in Schools and Special Education Centers in Mosul City

Objectives: To identify the effect of hearing impairment on children behavior in daily activities and communication with peers and problems facing teachers of HI children in Iraqi environment. Methods : the strength and difficult questionnaire (SDQ) was used to measure the behavioral, and peer problems questionnaire to measure communication disorders of children with HI based on parents and teachers in (209) children (123) HI and (86) normal hearing control group. Results: on parent teacher questionnaire significantly higher behavioral problems for HI children compared with control group (p-value 0.043&lt; alpha value 0.05) and (chi-square 7.321) so increase the emotional problems (p-value 0.035)and peer problems (0.026) of HI children its highly significant found of behavioral problems, so 65% of hearing impaired children had communication problems with others and environment. The teachers facing many problems when deals with HI but the most common one difficult when communicate with them because the limited capabilities available and modern educational methods for teaching the HI children. Conclusions: The majority of hearing impaired children have congenital cause for their hearing loss. Behavior problems appear more common in children with hearing loss and communication problems. The vast majority of teachers agree that there are problems facing students with hearing impairment, and these difficulties need to be dealt with the benefit of their children and the community as a whole.

Phonological Coding during Sentence Reading in Chinese Deaf Readers: An Eye-Tracking Study

ABSTRACT Phonological coding plays an important role in reading for hearing students. Experimental findings regarding phonological coding in deaf readers are controversial, and whether deaf readers are able to use phonological coding remains unclear. In the current study we examined whether Chinese deaf students could use phonological coding during sentence reading. Deaf middle school students, chronological age-matched hearing students, and reading ability-matched hearing students had their eye movements recorded as they read sentences containing correctly spelled characters, homophones, or unrelated characters. Both hearing groups had shorter total reading times on homophones than they did on unrelated characters. In contrast, no significant difference was found between homophones and unrelated characters for the deaf students. However, when the deaf group was divided into more-skilled and less-skilled readers according to their scores on reading fluency, the homophone advantage noted for the hearing controls was also observed for the more-skilled deaf students.

Universal stability in multi-hop radio networks

We study stability of routing in multi-hop wireless networks in the framework of adversarial queueing. A routing algorithm consists of three components: a transmission policy to decide on immediate transmissions, a scheduling policy to select a packet to transmit, and a hearing control to coordinate transmissions with scheduling. We consider two kinds of hearing control: proactive and reactive. We compare these policies and show relationships between the wired-network adversarial model and the multi-hop radio network model. In particular, we introduce a family of scheduling policies that are universally stable when using reactive hearing control, and obtain some stability results by using regular transmission oracles. We also prove that networks in which there is at least one node with an out-degree greater than 1 are unstable when using reactive hearing control, but all directed acyclic networks are universally stable, regardless of their out-degree, if using proactive hearing control.

No Olfactory Compensation in Food-related Hazard Detection Among Blind and Deaf Adults: A Psychophysical Approach

The exposure-driven olfactory compensation associated with sensory loss is likely to be observed in assessment of food-related dangers. Therefore, in the current study we tested the hypothesis that olfactory compensation occurs in the case of protection from food-related hazards. We compared thresholds for detection of an unpleasant rotten food odor (fermented fish sauce) in four groups of subjects: blind subjects (n = 100), sighted controls (n = 100), deaf subjects (n = 74) and hearing controls (n = 99). Overall, we observed no significant differences in smell acuity between the blind and deaf groups and their matched control samples. However, the sensory deprived subjects assessed their sensitivity as higher than did control groups. The present study is yet another example of research among large samples of sensory deprived individuals that shows no evidence of olfactory compensation. This result is consistent with a growing number of studies suggesting no sensory compensation in simple, absolute sensitivity tasks.

Development of the Voice Hearing Control Scales: And Instrument to Assess Control and Efficacy Over Voice-Hearing Experiences

A significant percentage of the general population hears voices (0.6% to 13). As we showed in a previous qualitative study, the capacity to control auditory hallucinations (AH) can be developed over time and is related to beliefs and acceptance of AH, among other factors. As a result, a scale was developed to measure Direct (DC, agency driven), Indirect (IC, non-agency driven), and Efficacy of Control over AH (EC) as well as coping strategies (CE).

Self‐rated sensory performance in profoundly deaf individuals. Do deaf people share the conviction about sensory compensation?

AbstractSensory deficits in one modality lead to functional changes of brain structures. Neural reorganization may result in sensory compensation and enhanced performance in sensory sensitivity tests. Many studies investigated how deafness affects functioning of the intact senses. Overall, their results remain inconclusive, mainly due to the statistically underpowered conclusions. A limited number of studies have focused on deaf people's convictions on their sensory abilities. This study compared a large sample of profoundly deaf subjects (n = 74) with hearing individuals (n = 100) in terms of their convictions about own sensory performance. First, participants were screened with speech perception tests. Then, they were asked to rate their own sensory sensitivity using two reference categories: (1) other people and (2) their usual sensitivity. Results show that majority of deaf individuals rated their intact senses (i.e., vision, smell, taste, and touch) as more sensitive than hearing controls. Furthermore, on the day of testing deaf individuals reported increased performance of the intact senses as referred to the usual performance. Explanations of the positive self‐evaluations of sensory abilities focus on the common belief among deaf people about sensory compensation and on using self‐enhancement strategies.Practical applicationsReported study introduces important knowledge about positive self‐views on sensory sensitivity of deaf individuals. Although these positive self‐views are unlikely to reflect the actual sensory performance, presented results are of high significance for the sensory scientists. Functional aspects of self‐views in domain of sensory sensitivity should guide educational programs and product design targeted to deaf individuals.