Article & Research Summaries

Twenty-one patients with definite Meniere’s disease (mean 49 ± 6.92 years) were compared with 24 healthy individuals. All underwent pure-tone audiometry, acoustic immittance, VNG, video ocular counter-roll (vOCR), ocular VEMP and subjective visual vertical/horizontal (SVV/SVH) testing.

• Static vOCR gain was similar in the two groups — on its own, the “strength” of the reflex looks normal.
• In the Meniere group, however, the OCR asymmetry ratio (p = 0.01) and oVEMP asymmetry (p < 0.001) were significantly higher.
• SVV and SVH deviations were significantly larger in the upright position (0°); no difference was found at 15°, 30° or 45° of tilt.

A retrospective review at a Turkish tertiary centre (University of Health Sciences, Gülhane) of 1,322 infants seen between January 2021 and December 2024 who either referred on screening or passed automated ABR while carrying a risk factor.

• Hearing loss was identified in 92 infants (7.0%): 3.3% unilateral and 3.7% bilateral.
• By degree: mild 2.8%, moderate 0.8%, moderately severe 0.3%, profound 1.5%.
• Most unilateral losses were not aided; among bilateral cases, 28.6% received hearing aids and 14.3% a cochlear implant.
• The only factor significantly associated with device use was a family history of hearing loss (p < 0.05).

Eighty-six Mandarin-speaking adults formed three groups: young normal-hearing, older normal-hearing and older hearing-impaired. Two paradigms were used: a dichotic “atomic speech” task built on sparse coding, which measures interaural spectro-temporal integration, and the antiphasic Zodiac-in-Noise test, which measures binaural unmasking based on interaural phase/timing cues.

• On the atomic-speech task, older listeners had elevated thresholds both monaurally and dichotically; once monaural performance was accounted for, the decline in binaural integration was predicted by age, not by hearing loss.
• Speech-in-noise thresholds were affected by both age and hearing loss, but the binaural benefit (BILD) was reduced mainly in the older hearing-impaired group.
• Performance on the two paradigms was uncorrelated — they tap two distinct abilities.

Rehabilitation patterns were examined in 213,285 US Veterans Affairs patients (mean age 80.3 ± 9.7) with bilateral severe or worse hearing loss; time to cochlear implantation was modelled with death as a competing risk.

• 95.2% of veterans had been fitted with hearing aids, only 2.5% had received a cochlear implant and 2.3% had no rehabilitation at all.
• The cumulative incidence of cochlear implantation was 1.9% at 5 years and 2.9% at 10 years.
• Age, race and ethnicity, VA priority group, word-recognition score, degree of loss, year of first documented loss and comorbidity count were all significantly associated with implantation.

Dynamic sound localization was measured in 102 adults in a virtual-reality environment under two postural conditions — seated and standing — with moving sound sources; absolute localization error and response consistency were compared.

• Localization error increased significantly in the standing condition compared with sitting.
• The effect was greater in older participants: the additional postural load consumed part of the resources available for spatial hearing.
• Head-movement strategy differed between conditions, showing that localization is not a purely auditory task.

Postoperative imaging and outcomes were reviewed in 48 ears with inner ear malformations that had received a cochlear implant; angular insertion depth was measured and related to auditory performance and complications.

• Angular insertion depth varied widely between malformation types — the same electrode does not sit the same way in every cochlea.
• Very deep insertion did not translate into better auditory outcomes and was associated with a higher complication risk in some malformations.
• Electrode choice and surgical planning matter more than depth alone.

Older adults with hearing loss were assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory and a self-report hearing-handicap measure; scores were compared across demographic groups.

• Median Beck Depression Inventory score was 29; 39% of participants fell into the moderate and 40.2% into the severe depression category.
• Depression scores rose significantly with the degree of hearing handicap (p < 0.001).
• There was no significant difference by sex, whereas marital status, education and income level did differ significantly between groups.