Monthly Archives: May 2010
The evidence for a life-coaching approach to aphasia
Conclusions: The assumptions behind the life-coaching approach are well supported by the narratives of people living with aphasia. Even if the life-coaching approach is not adopted wholeheartedly by the profession, the principles of positive psychology and the life goal perspective appear highly relevant to living successfully with aphasia.
from Aphasiology
Implementing and evaluating aphasia therapy targeted at couples’ conversations: A single case study
Conclusions: The study provides evidence that directly targeting the conversational behaviours of the person with aphasia and/or a main conversational partner can produce positive change, and can achieve this in a way that is ecologically valid. In particular, it highlights the usefulness of targeting conversational behaviours that are proving to be maladaptive for the participants. It provides further evidence that creating change in the non-aphasic partner’s conversational behaviour may facilitate change in the person with aphasia’s conversational and linguistic performance.
from Aphasiology
Cochlear Implantation in the Very Young Child: Issues Unique to the Under-1 Population
Since the advent of cochlear implantation, candidacy criteria have slowly broadened to include increasingly younger patients. Spurred by evidence demonstrating both perioperative safety and significantly increased speech and language benefit with early auditory intervention, children younger than 12 months of age are now being successfully implanted at many centers. This review highlights the unique challenges involved in cochlear implantation in the very young child, specifically diagnosis and certainty of testing, anesthetic risk, surgical technique, intraoperative testing and postoperative programming, long-term safety, development of receptive and expressive language, and outcomes of speech perception. Overall, the current body of literature indicates that cochlear implantation prior to 1 year of age is both safe and efficacious.
Vestibular dysfunction in a Japanese patient with a mutation in the gene OPA1
OPA1 mutations are known to cause autosomal dominant optic atrophy (ADOA), and some types of OPA1 mutations also cause auditory neuropathy. In the present study, we evaluated the vestibular dysfunction that accompanied auditory neuropathy in a patient with an OPA1 mutation. A caloric test failed to elicit nystagmus or dizziness in either ear. Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) in the right ear were characterized by a normal biphasic waveform. In contrast, no VEMPs were evoked in the left ear. Model building suggested that the OPA1 mutation, p.R445H, indirectly distorts the catalytic structure of the GTPase reaction center and decreases GTPase activity. The patient complained of instability while walking or moving but thought these symptoms were caused by visual dysfunction. This is the first report of a detailed evaluation of vestibular dysfunction in a patient with an OPA1 mutation. This case suggests that vestibular dysfunction may be involved in motor instability in patients with an OPA1 mutation, even when patients do not complain of vestibular symptoms. Based on this case, we suggest that vestibular evaluation should be performed in auditory neuropathy patients carrying an OPA1 mutation, even if the patients are free of symptoms of vestibular dysfunction.
from the Journal of the Neurological Sciences
Influence of cochlear implantation on peripheral vestibular receptor function
Conclusion
Cochlear implantation is a relevant risk factor for damage of peripheral vestibular receptor function. Therefore, preservation not only of residual hearing function but also of vestibular function should be aimed for, by using minimally invasive surgical techniques.
Delayed onset intracranial hemorrhage: A rare complication of a cochlear implant
No abstract is available.
Cochlear Implants Slightly Less Beneficial In Older Patients
Older adults appear to benefit significantly from cochlear implants, but not as much as younger patients who had similar levels of hearing impairment before surgery, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
The sound of seduction
Lowering voice may be means of signaling attraction, research finds
from EurekAlert.org
What makes music sound so sweet (or not)
The University of Minnesota team, including collaborators Andriana Lehr and Andrew Oxenham, was able to independently manipulate both the harmonic frequency relations of the sounds and another quality known as beating. (Harmonic frequencies are all multiples of the same fundamental frequency, McDermott explains. For example, notes at frequencies of 200, 300, and 400 hertz are all multiples of 100. Beating occurs when two sounds are close but not identical in frequency. Over time, the frequencies shift in and out of phase with each other, causing the sound to wax and wane in amplitude and producing an audible “wobbling” quality.)
The researchers’ results show that musical chords sound good or bad mostly depending on whether the notes being played produce frequencies that are harmonically related or not. Beating didn’t turn out to be as important. Surprisingly, the preference for harmonic frequencies was stronger in people with experience playing musical instruments. In other words, learning plays a role—perhaps even a primary one, McDermott argues.
from EurekAlert.org
Innovations in Technology for Autism Demonstrations
Researchers and families with children with autism demonstrating technology, Innovations in Technology for Autism Experts at the International Meeting for Autism Research
from EurekAlert.org
Meaningful Conversations Boost Kids’ Language Skills
Give-and-take discussions help them gain skills needed for school success, study shows
from HealthScout.com
Study finds racial, ethnic disparities in family-centered care for kids with special health needs
Now, a new, nationally representative study by researchers from UCLA and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has found that African American and Latino children with special health care needs, and those who come from households in which the primary language is not English, are less likely to receive family-centered care than are white children and those from households where English is the primary language.
In addition, the study authors found that there were disparities in two critical components of care provided to African American and Latino children and those from households where English is not the primary language: having adequate time with the child’s health care provider and receiving care that is sensitive to the family’s values and customs. The researchers said that improvements in these components could greatly reduce these disparities for family-centered care.
from EurekAlert.org
Dispensing Rates of Four Common Hearing Aid Product Features: Associations With Variations in Practice Among Audiologists
The purpose of the study was to develop and examine a list of potential variables that may account for variability in the dispensing rates of four common hearing aid features. A total of 29 potential variables were identified and placed into the following categories: (1) characteristics of the audiologist, (2) characteristics of the hearing aids dispensed by the audiologist, (3) characteristics of the audiologist’s patient population, and (4) evidence-based practice grades of recommendation for each feature. The potentially associative variables then were examined using regression analyses from the responses of 257 audiologists to a dispensing practice survey. There was a direct relation between price and level of hearing aid technology with the frequency of dispensing product features. There was also a direct relation between the belief by the audiologist that a feature might benefit patients and the frequency of dispensing that feature. In general, the results suggested that personal differences among audiologists and the hearing aids audiologists choose to dispense are related more strongly to dispensing rates of product features than to differences in characteristics of the patient population served by audiologists. An additional finding indicated that evidence-based practice recommendations were inversely related to dispensing rates of product features. This finding, however, may not be the result of dispensing trends as much as hearing aid manufacturing trends.
Improvements in Speech Understanding With Wireless Binaural Broadband Digital Hearing Instruments in Adults With Sensorineural Hearing Loss
This investigation examined whether speech intelligibility in noise can be improved using a new, binaural broadband hearing instrument system. Participants were 36 adults with symmetrical, sensorineural hearing loss (18 experienced hearing instrument users and 18 without prior experience). Participants were fit binaurally in a planned comparison, randomized crossover design study with binaural broadband hearing instruments and advanced digital hearing instruments. Following an adjustment period with each device, participants underwent two speech-in-noise tests: the QuickSIN and the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT). Results suggested significantly better performance on the QuickSIN and the HINT measures with the binaural broadband hearing instruments, when compared with the advanced digital hearing instruments and unaided, across and within all noise conditions.
