Latest Inner ear Stories

Researchers at King's College London have uncovered how the human ear is formed, giving clues as to why children are susceptible to infections such as glue ear. The work was funded by the UK Medical Research Council and published today in the journal Science. It is estimated that one in five children around the age of two will be affected by glue ear, a build-up of fluid in the middle ear chamber. This part of the ear contains three tiny bones that carry sound vibrations from the eardrum...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Finding the exact genetic code that programs the ear’s machinery for responding to sound waves and converting them into electrical impulses in the inner ear has been something of a holy grail for the scientists who study the genetics of hearing and deafness. A new study from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has brought this search to fruition by identifying a critical component of the ear-to-brain conversation. This component...

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The workings of the inner ear have been long thought to be well documented and understood. Previous research has found that tiny hairs, known as stereocilia, are attached to sensory cells in the inner ear and move side to side with the reverberations of sound, transferring this sound into the ear, where it is then picked up and translated by the brain. In an effort to better understand these movements and how they are interpreted...

Novel System Is Worn in the Mouth, Conducting Sound Via the Teeth PITTSBURGH, May 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After experiencing sudden hearing loss in his right ear more than four years ago, Paul Getsy got used to craning his neck to hear better and driving with his window up so he was more likely to hear his passengers speaking. In December at Allegheny General Hospital (AGH), he was fitted with SoundBite, a new hearing system that's enabled him to pick up most of the...

Device could make cochlear implants more convenient Cochlear implants have restored basic hearing to some 220,000 deaf people, yet a microphone and related electronics must be worn outside the head, raising reliability issues, preventing patients from swimming and creating social stigma. Now, a University of Utah engineer and colleagues in Ohio have developed a tiny prototype microphone that can be implanted in the middle ear to avoid such problems. The proof-of-concept device has...

The hair cells of the inner ear have a previously unknown "root" extension that may allow them to communicate with nerve cells and the brain to regulate sensitivity to sound vibrations and head position, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have discovered. Their finding is reported online in advance of print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The hair-like structures, called stereocilia, are fairly rigid and are interlinked at their...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Mutated genes in the sensory hair cells of the inner ear prevent sound waves from being converted into electrical signals- a fundamental first step in hearing. Restoring electrical signals in the sensory cells of deaf mice by introducing new genes allowed the mice to hear. The study paves the way for a test of gene therapy to reverse a type of deafness. Sound waves produce the sensation of hearing by jiggling protruding hair-like structures on sensory hair cells...

Gene-therapy trial will attempt to restore hearing in deaf mice Researchers have found long-sought genes in the sensory hair cells of the inner ear that, when mutated, prevent sound waves from being converted to electric signals – a fundamental first step in hearing. The team, co-led by Jeffrey Holt, PhD, in the department of otolaryngology at Children’s Hospital Boston, and Andrew Griffith, MD, PhD, of the NIH’s National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders...

Discovery may accelerate advances in understanding and treating hearing loss National Institutes of Health-funded researchers have identified two proteins that may be the key components of the long-sought after mechanotransduction channel in the inner ear—the place where the mechanical stimulation of sound waves is transformed into electrical signals that the brain recognizes as sound. The findings are published in the Nov. 21 online issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation. The...

Gene-therapy trial will attempt to restore hearing in deaf mice BOSTON, Nov. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Researchers have found long-sought genes in the sensory hair cells of the inner ear that, when mutated, prevent sound waves from being converted to electric signals - a fundamental first step in hearing. The team, co-led by Jeffrey Holt, PhD, in the department of otolaryngology at Children's Hospital Boston, and Andrew Griffith, MD, PhD, of the NIH's National Institute on...