د. واصف باهر

Research News in Speech,
Language, and Hearing Disorders
for June 2007


Note: These news items are gleaned from over 300 sources on the Internet and are provided as a service to our patrons. The University of Texas at Dallas does not guarantee the veracity, reliability or completeness of any information provided on this page, or in any hyperlink appearing on this page


18/11/200b
The Total Tinnitus Solution From T-Gone Remedies, Inc
from PRWeb.com
"The newly designed T-Gone.com website explains the four main causes of tinnitus, which include noise, stress, sinus, or Meniere's disease. "T-Gone's Natural homeopathic tinnitus treatments are also available for purchase, which helps sufferers gain control back of their lives." said Ellen. "These treatments eliminate debilitating ear ringing noises, or substantially reduce the volume of the perceived sounds.""

Genes Restored In Human Inner Ear Cells By UVa Researchers
from Medical News Today.com
"Researchers at the University of Virginia Health System have discovered a way to transfer genes, which they hope will restore hearing, into diseased tissue of the human inner ear. This important step brings scientists closer to curing genetic or acquired hearing loss. Their discovery appeared in the online issue of the scientific journal, Gene Therapy."

Auditory Nerve Implants Improve on Cochlear Implants
from MedGadget.com
"University of Michigan Medical School researchers are showing promising results with auditory nerve implants, which bypass the cochlea and go straight for the nerve it feeds."

Analysis of steroids as a treatment for sudden hearing loss
from News-Medical.net
"Although steroids are the most widely used treatment for sudden hearing loss, little scientific evidence supports their use or that of any other therapies for this condition."

Skeleton 2.0: Bones Transmitting Data
from MedGadget.com
"If you're only using your skeleton for standing, then you need a firmware upgrade (bad pun intended). Something along these lines is what Lin Zhong and Michael Liebschner at Rice University in Houston, Texas, envisage. They want to use the human skeleton to transmit commands reliably and securely to wearable gadgets and medical implants. Their research, funded by Microsoft and Texas Instruments, could also lead to new ways for people with disabilities to control devices such as computers and PDAs."

Key hearing loss gene identified
from the BBC
"The condition is caused by abnormal bone growth A gene responsible for the single most common cause of hearing loss among white adults has been identified."

Cerebral palsy in Norway: Prevalence, subtypes and severity
from the European Journal of Paediatric Neurology
"BACKGROUND/AIM: To describe prevalence, subtypes and severity of cerebral palsy (CP) in Norway using criteria proposed by the Surveillance of Cerebral Palsy in Europe (SCPE) network. MATERIAL: All children in Norway with CP born in January 1996-December 1998 were registered in the Cerebral Palsy Registry of Norway. The Medical Birth Registry of Norway provided the perinatal data. RESULTS: A total of 374 children with CP were identified with a prevalence of 2.1 per 1000 live births. Detailed information was obtained from 294 (79%) children. Median age at clinical assessment was 6.9 years (range: 1.9-10.2 years). Thirty-three percent of the children had spastic unilateral CP, 49% spastic bilateral, 6% dyskinetic, 5% ataxic CP and 7% were not classified. Severely impaired vision and hearing were present in 5% and 4% of the children, respectively. Active epilepsy was present in 28%, mental retardation in 31% and severely impaired or no speech in 28% children. The most severe impairments in gross motor function were observed in children with low Apgar scores, and the most severe impairments in fine motor function in children born at term, with normal birth weight and low Apgar scores. CONCLUSION: Compared with other populations, the prevalence of CP as well as the proportions of subtypes and gross motor impairments were similar, whereas fine motor impairments and associated impairments were more common. The classification of children with mixed forms of CP is still a challenge. Children were more severely affected if Apgar scores were low, and if they were born at term."



Treatment of vestibular schwannomas. Why, when and how?
from Acta Neurochirurgica
"Summary Sporadic vestibular schwannoma (VS) causes unilateral hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo and unsteadiness. In many cases, the tumour size may remain unchanged for many years following diagnosis, which is typically made by MRI. In the majority of cases the tumour is small, leaving the clinician and patient with the options of either serial scanning or active treatment by gamma knife radiosurgery (GKR) or microneurosurgery. Despite the vast number of published treatment reports, comparative studies are few, and evidence is no better than class III (May, 2006). The predominant clinical endpoints of VS treatment include tumour control, facial nerve function and hearing preservation. Less focus has been put on symptom relief and health-related quality of life (QOL). It is uncertain if treating a small tumour leaves the patient with a better chance of obtaining relief from future hearing loss, vertigo or tinnitus than by observing it without treatment. Recent data indicate that QOL is reduced in untreated VS patients, and may differ between patients who have been operated and patients treated with GKR. In the present paper we review the natural course and complaints of untreated VS patients, and the treatment alternatives and results. Furthermore, we review the literature concerning quality of life in patients with VS. Finally, we present our experience with a management strategy applied to more than 300 cases since 2001."

Molecular genetics study of deafness in Brazil: 8-year experience
from American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A
"Hereditary hearing loss is a complex disorder that involves a large number of genes. In developed countries, 1 in 1,000 children is born with deafness severe enough to require special education services, and about 60% of the cases of isolated deafness have a genetic origin. Although more than 100 genes for hearing loss are known currently, only a few are routinely tested in the clinical practice. In this study, we present our findings from the molecular diagnostic screening of the GJB2 and GJB3 genes, del(GJB6-D13S1830) and del(GJB6-D13S1854) deletions in the GJB6 gene, Q829X mutation in the otoferlin gene (OTOF) and, the A1555G and A7445G mutations in the mitochondrial genome over an 8-year period. Mutations analysis in the previously mentioned genes and mutations was performed on 645 unrelated Brazilian patients with hearing loss who fell into two different testing groups. Different mutations in the GJB2 gene were responsible for most of cases studied, but deletions in the GJB6 gene as well as mitochondrial mutations were also found. While most cases of hearing loss in this country are due to environmental factors, the genetic etiology of deafness will increasingly be determined as more genetic tests become available. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc."

Frontotemporal dementias: A review
from the Annals of General Psychiatry
"Dementia is a clinical state characterized by loss of function in multiple cognitive domains. It is a costly disease in terms of both personal suffering and economic loss. Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the term now preferred over Picks disease to describe the spectrum of non-Alzheimers dementias characterized by focal atrophy of the frontal and anterior temporal regions of the brain. The prevalence of FTD is considerable, though specific figures vary among different studies. It occurs usually in an age range of 35-75 and it is more common in individuals with a positive family history of dementia. The risk factors associated with this disorder include head injury and family history of FTD. Although there is some controversy regarding the further syndromatic subdivision of the different types of FTD, the three major clinical presentations of FTD include: 1) a frontal or behavioral variant (FvFTD), 2) a temporal, aphasic variant, also called Semantic dementia (SD), and 3) a progressive aphasia (PA). These different variants differ in their clinical presentation, cognitive deficits, and affected brain regions. Patients with FTD should have a neuropsychiatric assessment, neuropsychological testing and neuroimaging studies to confirm and clarify the diagnosis. Treatment for this entity consists of behavioral and pharmacological approaches. Medications such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizer and other novel treatments have been used in FTD with different rates of success. Further research should be directed at understanding and developing new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities to improve the patients' prognosis and quality of life."

Automatic evaluation of prosodic features of tracheoesophageal substitute voice
from the European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology
"Abstract In comparison with laryngeal voice, substitute voice after laryngectomy is characterized by restricted aero-acoustic properties. Until now, an objective means of prosodic differences between substitute and normal voices does not exist. In a pilot study, we applied an automatic prosody analysis module to 18 speech samples of laryngectomees (age: 64.2 ± 8.3 years) and 18 recordings of normal speakers of the same age (65.4 ± 7.6 years). Ninety-five different features per word based upon the speech energy, fundamental frequency F0 and duration measures on words, pauses and voiced/voiceless sections were measured. These reflect aspects of loudness, pitch and articulation rate. Subjective evaluation of the 18 patients’ voices was performed by a panel of five experts on the criteria “noise”, “speech effort”, “roughness”, “intelligibility”, “match of breath and sense units” and “overall quality”. These ratings were compared to the automatically computed features. Several of them could be identified being twice as high for the laryngectomees compared to the normal speakers, and vice versa. Comparing the evaluation data of the human experts and the automatic rating, correlation coefficients of up to 0.84 were measured. The automatic analysis serves as a good means to objectify and quantify the global speech outcome of laryngectomees. Even better results are expected when both the computation of the features and the comparison method to the human ratings will have been revised and adapted to the special properties of the substitute voices."



Inhibition or Compensation? A Multidimensional Comparison of Reading Processes in Dutch and English
from Language Learning
"This study examined two competing hypotheses about second language reading processes: the inhibition hypothesis and the compensation hypothesis. Although the ideas expressed in these hypotheses have been reiterated in the literature, previous to this study, they had seldom been investigated systematically. The inhibition hypothesis states that in foreign language reading, the lack of fluent linguistic processes inhibits the amount of attention devoted to conceptual processes (e.g., Koda, 1996; Segalowitz, Watson, & Segalowitz, 1995). In contrast, the compensation hypothesis states that readers in a foreign language are able to skirt around comprehension problems by actually devoting more attention to global, conceptual reading processes. Using the think-aloud method, we compared the reading strategies of 22 Dutch high school students in Dutch (their first language [L1]) and English (their foreign language [FL]). Whereas previous studies have confined themselves to grouping strategies into categories along a single dimension, the present study used a three-dimensional classification scheme that entails the following: Orientation of Processing (i.e., whether strategies are directed toward content or language); Type of Processing (i.e., whether strategies involve regulating the reading process, processing the meaning of the text, or rereading the text); and linguistic Domain of Processing (i.e., whether strategies are directed toward text elements at levels below, at, or above the clause). This multidimensional perspective allowed a comparison of reading strategies in the L1 and FL to be made with notable precision. By separating distinctions that were conflated in previous studies, we provide a greater degree of theoretical clarity concerning the nature of L1 and FL reading processes. The findings of the study call into question whether either the inhibition hypothesis or the compensation hypothesis provides an adequate representation of FL reading processes—at least in the context examined. On the one hand, there was little evidence that readers focused less on global text content in the FL. On the other hand, there was no evidence that readers compensated for language problems by focusing more on global text content in English. Instead, the findings suggest a model of FL reading processes in which readers are able to compensate for language problems by focusing attention on them, without this extra focus on linguistic p