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Age-Related Decline In Neural Synchrony And The Ffr, Haley Szabo

Dissertations, 2020-current

It is a known phenomenon that speech understanding in background noise declines with advancing age. Although there is ample evidence of behavioral measures declining with age, there is less physiologic evidence. This study hypothesizes that the FFR will be degraded with advancing age, consistent with poorer phase locking. This is hypothesized to be present even in people with audiograms within normal limits. A second hypothesis is that middle-aged adults will have degraded neural representation as frequency increases, compared to a younger normal hearing group which will have better high frequency neural representation than the middle-aged group. Subjects were divided into …

A Survey Of Cochlear Implant Clinical Protocols In India, Ariana Morris

Dissertations, 2020-current

The most recent data published in December 2019 records that approximately 736,900 registered cochlear implantation devices have been received since their approval in the 1980s. While 183,100 of these devices belong to U.S. Citizens, the large majority of cochlear implant recipients live in other countries (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). While a lack of standardized practices exists in relation to audiologic care and management of cochlear implant devices and patients, Browning et al. (2020) attempts to assess and analyze common practices amongst audiologists practicing within the United States of America. This survey uses a modified questionnaire based …

The Relationship Between The Vestibular Ocular Reflex And Perception In Young Healthy Adults, Susanne Nelson

Dissertations, 2020-current

Vestibular impairments are often identified through measures of vestibular reflexes such as the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). However, in clinical practice measures of the VOR do not always correlate with the patient’s reported symptoms. In contrast to physiologic measures like the VOR, psychophysical methods can be used to assess a person’s perception of movement. Previous psychophysics research shows that perceptual thresholds of angular motion do not correlate with VOR measures, but this has not been assessed at suprathreshold levels. The purpose of this study was to assess whether vestibular reflexive responses (i.e., VOR) were correlated to the patient’s perception of movement …

Temporal Modulation Transfer Functions Of Amplitude-Modulated Cervical Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials In Young Adults, Kerri Lawlor

Dissertations, 2020-current

Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs) are widely used to evaluate saccular function in clinical and research applications. Typically, transient tonebursts are used to elicit cVEMPs. In this study, we used bone-conducted amplitude-modulated (AM) tones to elicit AMcVEMPs. This new approach allows the examination of phase-locked vestibular responses across a range of modulation frequencies. Currently, cVEMP temporal modulation transfer functions (TMTFs) are not well defined. The purposes of the present study were 1) to characterize the AMcVEMP TMTF in young, healthy individuals, 2) to compare AMcVEMP TMTFs across different analysis approaches, and 3) to determine the upper frequency limit of …

Induction Of Nocebo Effects By Verbal Suggestions During The Caloric Test, Abbey Weist

Dissertations, 2020-current

The caloric test is the most frequently performed vestibular diagnostic test and is considered the “gold-standard” for the assessment of the peripheral vestibular system. Using a warm or cool stimulus, the caloric test alters the temperature gradient in the vestibular system resulting in nausea and dizziness. The nocebo effect is a phenomenon that can occur when negative expectations result in negative effects. No study has examined whether expectations of nausea and dizziness during the caloric test enhance the experience of unwanted symptoms. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether a nocebo response can be elicited during the caloric …

Cervical Vestibular-Evoked Myogenic Potentials (Cvemps): "Differentiation Of Inter-Neck Emg Symmetry Between Children And Adults", Ellen Jones

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

A cervical Vestibular-Evoked Myogenic Potential (cVEMP) is one of the few objective vestibular diagnostic tests available for pediatric populations. This test evaluates the functionality of the saccule end organ through an inhibitory reflex on the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle that inhibits the level of electromyographic (EMG) activity (Wiener-Vacher, 2013). Because the saccule response is measured as an inhibition of EMG in the SCM, it is imperative that the SCM have a tonic contraction prior to eliciting the response and that the contraction of the SCM is equal on the right and left sides. It is generally accepted that young, healthy adults …

Audiologists’ Preferences In Programming Cochlear Implants, Leanne Browning

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Cochlear implants have become a viable option for those with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss who gain little benefit from hearing aids and have poor word recognition ability. However, the techniques audiologists use to program these devices are not standardized (Sorkin, 2013). There is little data available which analyzes how audiologists handle clinical cochlear implant programming between the top manufacturers. These companies supply default settings in their products but is it unknown how often audiologists use these in practice in the United States.

In the present study, a questionnaire based on previous European data from Vaerenberg et al. (2014) …

Music And Speech Perception In Children Using Sung Speech: Effects Of Neurocognitive Factors, Victoria A. André

Dissertations, 2014-2019

The current study aimed to explore normal-hearing children's ability to utilize pitch and timbre cues and how these findings correlate with neurocognitive factors. Participants were recruited if they had English as their first language and no formal musical training or 3+ years of formal musical training. Twenty normal-hearing children, age 7.5-14.5 years (mean = 10.5; n=20) were recruited for the study. Nonverbal intelligence, receptive vocabulary, and auditory working memory were assessed using subtests of the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test-2, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4, and Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing-2, respectively. Raw scores were used to analyze these neurocognitive abilities in …

Development And Deployment Of A Small Stereo-Hearing Testing System: Two Manuscripts, Sofia A. Ganev

Dissertations, 2014-2019

MANUSCRIPT #1 TITLE

Development of a Deployable Stereo-Hearing System

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of a portable stereo-hearing testing system with the intent of deployment for data collection in future studies. We quantify sound localization accuracy and speech-in-noise thresholds comparing unilateral (such as single-sided deafness) and bilateral subjects. We desired to design a small, inexpensive system that would show a large effect size between binaural and monaural subjects in a variety of stereo hearing tasks.

Methods: Subjects were tested on localization accuracy and speech understanding in noise using a laboratory-made stereo-hearing testing device. For the …

Build-Up Effect Of Auditory Stream Segregation Using Amplitude-Modulated Narrowband Noise, Harley J. Wheeler

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Recent psychoacoustic experiments (Böckmann-Barthel et al., 2014; Deike et al., 2012) have re-examined research regarding stream segregation and the build-up effect. Stream segregation is the ability to discern auditory objects within a stream of information, such as distinguishing one voice amongst background noise or an instrument within an orchestra. Initial works examining this topic proposed that auditory information is not immediately distinguished as various streams, but rather that differences accumulate over time, allowing listeners to segregate information following a period of build-up (i.e., the build-up effect); whereas more current findings indicate a build-up period is unnecessary for segregation. This experiment’s …

Pre-Pulse Inhibition Assessment Of Sound Localization In Mice, Kathryn C. Brooks

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of my Honors Research Project was to assist Dr. Megan

Klingenberg in completing part of the research in her final dissertation project. Dr.

Klingenberg’s project was based off of a study done by Allen and Ison in 2010.

This study tested the auditory spatial acuity of mice using pre-pulse inhibition of

the startle reflex as the response for detecting the sound stimulus. The goal of

Dr. Klingenberg’s AuD project was “to explore the methodological, functional, and

genetic influences on sound localization using pre-pulse inhibition of the acoustic

startle response in mice”. Dr. Klingenberg’s project was broken into three …

Binaural Listening In Young And Middle-Aged Adults: Interaural Phase Differences And Speech-In-Noise Measures, Caitlin Cotter

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Difficulty understanding speech in the presence of noise is a common complaint of middle-aged and older adults with and without hearing loss. There is an incomplete picture of what contributes to difficulties understanding speech-in-noise in adults who have normal audiograms. As humans we listen binaurally, so declines in binaural processing may contribute to speech-in-noise difficulties. We examined the effects of age on the upper frequency limit of interaural phase difference (IPD) detection and IPD detection at fixed frequencies. We also examined a speech-in-noise measure of spatial separation across young and middle-aged, normal-hearing individuals.

Participants were young (n=12) and middle-aged (n=8) …

Effects Of Auditory And Visual Distracters On Acceptable Background Noise Level In Hearing-Impaired Listeners, Elizabeth A. Ripley

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Acceptable Noise Level (ANL), is an established procedure for determining the amount of background noise a listener is willing to accept while listening to speech. ANL is established by having the listener select most amount of background noise they are willing to accept while listening to a speech stimulus presented at their most comfortable listening level (MCL). While ANLs have been established as good predictors of hearing aid use, little is known on how hearing aid users accept background noise while engaged in cognitively demanding tasks. Previous research in normal hearing listeners has demonstrated that listeners will allow the most …