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Signia Pure Charge & Go X Hearing Aid Exeter

Signia Pure Charge & Go X Hearing Aid Exeter

Signia Pure Charge & Go X Hearing Aids are available at the Honiton hearing centre between near Exeter.

 

Signia Pure Charge & Go X Hearing Aids are available at the Honiton hearing centre. The hearing centre is renowned for the latest hearing devices on the market today.  Colin Eaton, the lead audiologist at Honiton is a fully qualified hearing expert that is also a ear wax removal specialist.

If you need ear wax removing or ”Syringing” please call reception and ask for Sam to book an appointment. Or alternatively click here for online booking.

Exeter ear wax removal

You can watch how ear wax is removed by using Microsuction here. This is our very latest Microsuction video to show how easy and quickly it really is.

If you are suffering with hearing loss and need a hearing test, we can test your ears to see if there is any hearing loss at all in either ear and then discuss what the best solution (if needed), would be best for you.

Exeter ear syringing

 

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Signia Launches Pure Charge&Go X Hearing Aid

Signia (a brand of WS Audiology A/S) announced the general availability of the Pure Charge&Go X. Built upon the recently launched Signia Xperience platform, the new devices are said to provide wearers with “superior hearing even when in motion—all in a sleek, rechargeable hearing aid.”

Pure Charge&Go X is a receiver-in-canal (RIC) device that includes “the world’s first acoustic-motion sensors,” according to the company’s announcement. Since a hearing aid wearer’s sound environment can change suddenly, this technology can reportedly adapt to changes in their soundscape and detect when the wearer is in motion, responding automatically to “deliver natural and personalised sound from any direction, in any situation—even when moving.”

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With 20% more battery capacity and and a size 16% smaller than the previous version, according to Signia, Pure Charge&Go X is said to provide “a comfortable, long-lasting wearing experience.”

Better hearing for a life in motion

The technology and features of Pure Charge&Go X help wearers navigate everyday life, whether on the go at work or at home with family. For instance, Reed Doughty, a 37-year-old former professional football player and current school athletic director, benefits from the acoustic-motion sensors to help him understand speech from any direction throughout his busy day.

“I go from a weight room, to a board meeting room, to a classroom, to an athletic field, to the loud gym, to home with four kids, to a dinner out with my wife,” Doughty said. “Being able to navigate these settings and not just get through but actually enjoy those experiences is great, because those loud and differing environments can be frustrating for someone with hearing loss.”

Terry Hanratty is another former football pro who, after playing for eight seasons and working on Wall Street for three decades, is used to being on the go. For this active 71-year-old, hearing is important for a good quality of life and staying connected. An experienced wearer, Hanratty found more success with Signia’s Pure Charge&Go X compared to his previous pair.

“They are really a game changer, because with the previous ones, I could hear, but I couldn’t hear everything,” Hanratty said. “The biggest factor is that I can hear every word. I carry on a conversation with anybody and I’m hearing everything.”

Advanced technology in a smaller device

The new Pure Charge&Go X hearing aids deliver hearing technology with the features important to today’s hearing aid wearers like Doughty and Hanratty. They offer Bluetooth connectivity to stream phone calls, music, and TV audio to their hearing aids. Wearers also benefit from Signia’s world’s first Own Voice Processing (OVP), which processes the wearer’s voice separately from other sounds for a “natural sounding own voice.”

The Pure Charge&Go X, available at the Honiton hearing centre, Devon

The Pure Charge&Go X is said to offer Signia Xperience hearing technology with lithium-ion recharge-ability and full Bluetooth connectivity.

Built with lithium-ion recharge-ability, Pure Charge&Go X reportedly holds 20% more battery capacity than Signia’s previous Pure Charge&Go device, giving wearers greater flexibility and convenience as they go about their day, the company says.

A new inductive charger includes a protective lid that also dehumidifies the devices and fits custom earmolds. The charger is also backwards compatible with all Signia lithium-ion inductive charging hearing aids.

Signia Pure Charge & Go X Hearing Aid Honiton

Pure Charge&Go X is also compatible with the newly launched Signia app, which combines all existing Signia apps into one. The new app enables wearers to further personalise the hearing experience, manage streaming activities, and even connect with their hearing care professional remotely.

Additional information about Signia’s new Pure Charge&Go X hearing aids can be found at: https://www.signia-hearing.co.uk/pure-charge-go-x

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Images: Signia

Heading a football could create Balance issues

Heading a Football May Be Linked to Increase in Balance Problems

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Soccer players who head the ball more often may be more likely to have balance problems than players who do not head the ball as often, according to a preliminary study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s (AAN) Sports’ Concussion Conference in Indianapolis July 20 to 22, 2018, the AAN announced on its website.

“Soccer headers are repetitive subconcussive head impacts that may be associated with problems with thinking and memory skills and structural changes in the white matter of the brain,” said study author John Jeka, PhD, of the University of Delaware in Newark, Del. “But the effect of headers on balance control has not been studied.”

For the study, 20 soccer players recruited from the community in Newark took a balance test where they walked along a foam walkway with their eyes closed under two conditions: with galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) and without GVS. For GVS, electrodes placed behind each ear stimulate the nerves that send messages from the balance system in the inner ear to the brain. So the stimulator can make you feel like you are moving when you are not. In this case, it made participants feel like they were falling sideways.

The soccer players, who had an average age of 22, also completed questionnaires about how many times they had headed the ball during the past year. The number of headers over a year for each participant ranged from 16 to 2,100, with an average of 451 headers. Those numbers were calculated by asking participants for the average number of headers during a practice and game, the average number of practices and games per week, and the average number of months per year that the player participated.

The study found that the players with the largest number of headers had the largest balance responses to GVS in both foot placement and hip adduction during the walking test, which indicated that they had vestibular processing and balance recovery problems. Researchers found for every 500 headers, foot placement response increased about 9 millimeters and hip adduction response increased about 0.2 degrees.

“Soccer players must have good balance to play the game well, yet our research suggests that headers may be undermining balance, which is key to all movement, and yet another problem now linked to headers,” said study author Fernando V. Santos, PT, of the University of Delaware. “It is important that additional research be done to look more closely at this possible link with balance and to confirm our findings in larger groups of people.”

A limitation of the study was that participants relied on memory when reporting how many times they headed the ball. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Learn more about concussion at www.BrainandLife.org, the American Academy of Neurology’s free patient and caregiver magazine and website focused on the intersection of neurologic disease and brain health. Follow Brain & Life on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram.

To learn more about the AAN’s Sports Concussion Guideline and access resources, visit https://www.aan.com/concussion.

Original Paper: Santos FV, Caccese JB, Gongora M, et al. Greater exposure to repetitive subconcussive head impacts is associated with vestibular dysfunction and balance impairments during walking. Paper presented at: 2018 AAN Sports Concussion Conference; Indianapolis, IN. https://www.aan.com/PressRoom/Home/GetDigitalAsset/12757

Source: AAN

Image: © Macleoddesigns Dreamstime.com

Best earwax removal in Devon (Honiton)

Best earwax removal in Devon (Honiton)

 

The Honiton hearing centre in Devon are regarded as being the best in Devon according to clients. They come back time after time after trying other earwax removal clinics in the Devon area.

 

Colin Eaton the top audiologist for the Whole of Devon runs the Honiton Hearing Centre and is a proud member of AHHIP the industry council and advisory body for hearing audiologists.  http://www.aihhp.org/

If you are looking for earwax removal using the gentle technique of Microsuction https://honiton-hearing.co.uk/services/earwax-removal/ or the more traditional water irrigation technique, here at the Honiton hearing centre they can do them both.

 

Honiton hearing centre News:

In the news this week:

Researchers Identify New Type of Vertigo, According to Study Published in ‘Neurology’

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Earwax removal and digital hearing aids in Devon U.K.

Neurologists have identified a new type of vertigo with no known cause, according to a study published in the May 23, 2018 online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology(AAN), the AAN announced on its website.

With vertigo, people have episodes of dizziness that can last from minutes to days. Vertigo can be caused by serious conditions, such as tumors, or conditions that are fairly benign, such the inner ear disorder Meniere’s disease. But for some people, no cause can be found.

In this new study, neurologists have identified a new type of vertigo where treatment may be effective.

“These conditions can be difficult to diagnose and quite debilitating for people, so it’s exciting to be able to discover this new diagnosis of a condition that may respond to treatment,” said study author Ji-Soo Kim, MD, PhD, of Seoul National University in Seongnam, South Korea.

To diagnose this new condition, the person sits in a dark room and the examiner moves the patient’s head forward and then the head is shaken horizontally for about 15 seconds. Then the patient opens his or her eyes and a video recording is taken of eye movements. The neurologists discovered that after the test, people with this new condition had eye movements called nystagmus that lasted longer than for other people. The new condition is called recurrent spontaneous vertigo with head-shaking nystagmus.

Among 338 people with vertigo with no known cause, 35 had this new condition and were included in the study. The participants had attacks of vertigo ranging from two or three times a week to once a year. They also experienced nausea or vomiting, headaches, and intolerance of head motions during the attacks.

The participants were compared to 35 people with other conditions that can cause vertigo, such Meniere’s disease, vestibular migraine, and vestibular neuritis. The test measured the time constant, or the time that represents the speed with which the reflexive eye movements can respond to change. For those with the new condition, the time constant during the primary phase of the nystagmus was 12 seconds, while it was six seconds for those with Meniere’s disease and five seconds for those with vestibular neuritis and vestibular migraine.

The neurologists also found that people with the new type of vertigo were more likely to have severe motion sickness than those with other types of vertigo.

A total of 20 of the 35 people with the new type of vertigo who had frequent attacks and severe symptoms were given preventive medication. About one-third of those had partial or complete recovery with the new medication. During the long-term follow-up of an average of 12 years after the first symptoms for 31 participants, five reported no more attacks, 14 said their symptoms had improved, and only one said symptoms had gotten worse.

Kim said that people with this condition may have a hyperactive mechanism in their vestibular system that helps the brain respond to movement of the body and in the environment.

“It’s possible that the vertigo occurs when this unstable mechanism is disrupted by factors either within the person’s body or in their environment,” Kim said.

The study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea. Learn more about the brain at www.BrainandLife.org, the American Academy of Neurology’s free patient and caregiver magazine and website focused on the intersection of neurologic disease and brain health. Follow Brain & Life on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram.

The American Academy of Neurology is said to be the world’s largest association of neurologists and neuroscience professionals, with 34,000 members. The AAN is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, concussion, Parkinson’s disease, and epilepsy.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit AAN.com or find us on FacebookTwitterLinkedIn, and YouTube.

Original Paper: Lee S-U, Jeong-Yoon C, Hyo-Jung K, Ji-Soo, K. Recurrent spontaneous vertigo with interictal headshaking nystagmus. Neurology. 2018. Available at: http://n.neurology.org/content/early/2018/05/23/WNL.0000000000005689

Source: AAN, Neurology 

 

 

 

Tinnitus therapy, Honiton, Devon

Brainwave Abnormality Could Be Common to Parkinson’s Disease, Tinnitus, Depression

Tinnitus, news update:

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The Honiton hearing centre in Devon offers Tinnitus therapy

A brainwave abnormality could be a common link between Parkinson’s disease, neuropathic pain, tinnitus, and depression—a link that authors of a new study suggest could lead to treatment for all four conditions.

Dr Sven Vanneste, an associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas, is one of three authors of a paper in the journal Nature Communications regarding thalamocortical dysrhythmia (TCD), a theory that ties a disruption of brainwave activity to the symptoms of a wide range of neurological disorders, The University of Texas announced.

Dr Sven Vanneste, associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Dr Sven Vanneste, associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Vanneste and his colleagues—Dr Jae-Jin Song of South Korea’s Seoul National University and Dr Dirk De Ridder of New Zealand’s University of Otago—analyzed electroencephalograph (EEG) and functional brain mapping data from more than 500 people to create what Vanneste believes is the largest experimental evaluation of TCD, which was first proposed in a paper published in 1996.

“We fed all the data into the computer model, which picked up the brain signals that TCD says would predict if someone has a particular disorder,” Vanneste said. “Not only did the program provide the results TCD predicted, we also added a spatial feature to it. Depending on the disease, different areas of the brain become involved.”

https://honiton-hearing.co.uk/services/tinnitus-control/

The strength of our paper is that we have a large enough data sample to show that TCD could be an explanation for several neurological diseases.

Brainwaves are the rapid-fire rhythmic fluctuations of electric voltage between parts of the brain. The defining characteristics of TCD begin with a drop in brainwave frequency—from alpha waves to theta waves when the subject is at rest—in the thalamus, one of two regions of the brain that relays sensory impulses to the cerebral cortex, which then processes those impulses as touch, pain, or temperature.

A key property of alpha waves is to induce thalamic lateral inhibition, which means that specific neurons can quiet the activity of adjacent neurons. Slower theta waves lack this muting effect, leaving neighboring cells able to be more active. This activity level creates the characteristic abnormal rhythm of TCD.

“Because you have less input, the area surrounding these neurons becomes a halo of gamma hyperactivity that projects to the cortex, which is what we pick up in the brain mapping,” Vanneste said.

While the signature alpha reduction to theta is present in each disorder examined in the study—Parkinson’s, pain, tinnitus, and depression—the location of the anomaly indicates which disorder is occurring.

“If it’s in the auditory cortex, it’s going to be tinnitus; if it’s in the somatosensory cortex, it will be pain,” Vanneste explained. “If it’s in the motor cortex, it could be Parkinson’s; if it’s in deeper layers, it could be depression. In each case, the data show the exact same wavelength variation—that’s what these pathologies have in common. You always see the same pattern.”

EEG data from 541 subjects was used. About half were healthy control subjects, while the remainder were patients with tinnitus, chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, or major depression. The scale and diversity of this study’s data set are what set it apart from prior research efforts.

“Over the past 20 years, there have been pain researchers observing a pattern for pain, or tinnitus researchers doing the same for tinnitus,” Vanneste said. “But no one combined the different disorders to say, ‘What’s the difference between these diseases in terms of brainwaves, and what do they have in common?’ The strength of our paper is that we have a large enough data sample to show that TCD could be an explanation for several neurological diseases.”

With these results in hand, the next step could be a treatment study based on vagus nerve stimulation—a therapy being pioneered by Vanneste and his colleagues at the Texas Biomedical Device Center at UT Dallas. A different follow-up study will examine a new range of psychiatric diseases to see if they could also be tied to TCD. Tinnitus, is thought to be connected.

For now, Vanneste is glad to see this decades-old idea coming into focus and suggest that Tinnitus is getting better understood,.

“More and more people agree that something like thalamocortical dysrhythmia exists,” he said. “From here, we hope to stimulate specific brain areas involved in these diseases at alpha frequencies to normalize the brainwaves again. We have a rationale that we believe will make this type of tinnitus therapy work.”

The research was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) and the Seoul National University Bundang Hospital.

Original Paper: Vanneste S, Song J-J, De Ridder D. Thalamocortical dysrhythmia detected by machine learning. Nature Communications. 2018;9(1103)

Source: Nature Communications, University of Texas at Dallas, Tinnitus.

Image: University of Texas at Dallas

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Children with Hearing Loss May Experience Higher Rate of Bullying

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balance issues in children

New UT Dallas research indicates that children and adolescents with hearing loss experience higher rates of peer victimization, or bullying, than children with typical hearing, UT Dallas announced in a press release on its website.

In the study, approximately 50% of the adolescents with hearing loss said they were picked on in at least one way in the past year. Previous studies show about 28% of adolescents in the general population report being bullied.

“I thought more children and adolescents with hearing loss would report getting picked on, but I did not expect the rates to be twice as high as the general population,” said Dr Andrea Warner-Czyz, an assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and a researcher at the Callier Center for Communication Disorders.

Dr Andrea Warner-Czyz

Dr Andrea Warner-Czyz

The study, which appears in the journal Exceptional Children, showed the type of bullying experienced by youth and adolescents with hearing loss mimics patterns in children with other special needs, with significantly higher rates of social exclusion.

More than one-fourth of adolescents with hearing loss indicated they felt left out of social activities, compared to only 5% of the general population reporting exclusion. These findings parallel published reports of fewer invitations to social events, lower quantity and quality of friendships, and higher loneliness in children and adolescents with hearing loss.

Researchers conducted an online survey of 87 children and adolescents ages 7 to 18 who wear cochlear implants or hearing aids for hearing loss. If they indicated they were picked on at all, the survey automatically generated follow-up questions on how often it occurred and why they thought they were targeted.

Approximately 45% said they did not know why, 20% said it was because of their hearing loss or cochlear implant, and 20% said it was because of how they looked or how they acted.

Based on information provided by parents and from other studies, Warner-Czyz said the problems with peers might reflect communication difficulties related to auditory skills.

“Sometimes they miss puns or a play on words, or other cues that have to do with humor. Or when something is said very quietly or in a noisy location, the student with hearing loss might miss it. And that can make them feel like an outcast, or it can make them look like an outcast,” she said.

“Friendships are important to most young people, but I believe are especially important for children with hearing loss.”
said Warner-Czyz. Alternatively, she said peer problems might indicate a broader issue of not recognizing social cues from conversation or distinguishing true friendship from acquaintances.

Researchers have previously said having at least one good friend is a protective factor against bullying. Most children in this study cited several or lots of friends, but anecdotal reports from parents and clinicians questioned the veracity of these friendships.

“Friendships are important to most young people, but I believe they are especially important for children with hearing loss,” said Warner-Czyz. “Anything parents can do to facilitate social interaction and friendship and letting them learn how to be a friend and who is a friend is critical.”

She said future research will delve more deeply into the reasons behind differences in friendship quality and peer victimization in children and adolescents with hearing loss to guide evidence-based, targeted therapeutic intervention and potentially contribute to effective anti-bullying programs geared toward children with special needs. She said these factors might go beyond individual youth characteristics to include a microsystem of school and home settings.

The research is part of a larger study exploring the quality of life in children and adolescents with cochlear implants.

Original Paper: Warner-Czyz AD, Loy B, Pourchot H, White T, Cokely E. Effect of hearing loss on peer victimization in school-age children. Exceptional Children. 2018;84(3):280-297.

Source: UT Dallas, Exceptional Children

Image: UT Dallas

Tinnitus Management and therapy, Honiton Devon

Oticon ConnectClip Wins 2018 Red Dot Award for Product Design

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Red Dot logo 2018

Oticon ConnectClip has earned a 2018 Red Dot Award for product design, the Denmark-based hearing aid manufacturer announced. A panel of international jurors recognized ConnectClip for what was said to be “outstanding design aesthetics” that incorporated a variety of technical, performance, and functionality innovations. The intermediary device is the newest addition to the Oticon connectivity devices designed to improve Oticon Opn™users’ listening and communication experiences.  ConnectClip will be among the award-winning designs exhibited at Red Dot Design Museums around the world.

Oticon Logo

Commenting on the award win, Gary Rosenblum, president, Oticon, Inc said, “Oticon is honored to receive another prestigious Red Dot Award, this year for our new ConnectClip. This internationally recognized symbol of excellence is a testament not only to ConnectClip’s convenient, lifestyle-enhancing features, but also to the work that goes into the design and continued evolution of our Oticon Opn hearing aid, a 2017 Red Dot Award winner.”

The multi-functional ConnectClip is designed to turn Oticon Opn hearing aids into a high-quality wireless headset for clear, hands-free calls from mobile phones, including iPhone® and Android™ smartphones. Sound from the mobile phones is streamed directly to the hearing aids and ConnectClip’s directional microphones pick up the wearer’s voice. ConnectClip serves double duty as a remote/partner microphone, helping to provide improved intelligibility of the speaker wearing it, either at a distance (up to 65 feet), in very noisy environments or in a combination of the two. Opn wearers can also use ConnectClip as a remote control for their hearing aids.

Wearable Technology Award Win

Oticon also celebrates a win at the UK’s Wearable Technology and Digital Health Show Awards. Oticon Opn received the  Innovation Award for wearable originality and advancement. The win reflects votes by a combined method of professional jury and public website vote.

Organizers at the Wearable Technology and Digital Health Show Awards commented on the win: ”The judges felt that the Oticon solution presented a revolutionary approach to hearing loss, and that its technology presented a real opportunity for users to interact with the growing number of smart devices in the home. A worthy winner.”

Learn more about the expanded Oticon Opn family, ConnectClip and entire range of wireless connectivity accessories at www.Oticon.com/Connectivity.

 * Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Android, Google Play, and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc.

Source: Oticon

Images: Oticon, Red Dot

New Hearing Devices at The Honiton hearing Centre

New Hearing Devices in Development May Expand Range of Human Hearing

New Digital hearing aids are available in Devon U.K.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University are developing atomically thin ‘drumheads’ able to receive and transmit signals across a radio frequency range far greater than what we can hear with the human ear, the University announced in a press release.

But the drumhead is tens of trillions times (10 followed by 13 zeros) smaller in volume and 100,000 times thinner than the human eardrum.

It’s been said that the advances will likely contribute to making the next generation of ultralow-power communications and sensory devices smaller and with greater detection and tuning ranges.

“Sensing and communication are key to a connected world,” said Philip Feng, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science and corresponding author on a paper about the work published March 30 in the journal Science Advances. “In recent decades, we have been connected with highly miniaturized devices and systems, and we have been pursuing ever-shrinking sizes for those devices.”

The challenge with miniaturization: Also achieving a broader dynamic range of detection, for small signals, such as sound, vibration, and radio waves.

“In the end, we need transducers that can handle signals without losing or compromising information at both the ‘signal ceiling’ (the highest level of an undistorted signal) and the ‘noise floor’ (the lowest detectable level),” Feng said.

While this work was not geared toward specific devices currently on the market, researchers said, it was focused on measurements, limits, and scaling which would be important for essentially all transducers.

Those transducers may be developed over the next decade, but for now, Feng and his team have already demonstrated the capability of their key components—the atomic layer drumheads or resonators—at the smallest scale yet.

The work represents the highest reported dynamic range for vibrating transducers of their type. To date, that range had only been attained by much larger transducers operating at much lower frequencies—like the human eardrum, for example.

“What we’ve done here is to show that some ultimately miniaturized, atomically thin electromechanical drumhead resonators can offer remarkably broad dynamic range, up to ~110dB, at radio frequencies (RF) up to over 120MHz,” Feng said. “These dynamic ranges at RF are comparable to the broad dynamic range of human hearing capability in the audio bands.”

New dynamic standard

Feng said the key to all sensory systems, from naturally occurring sensory functions in animals to sophisticated devices in engineering, is that desired dynamic range.

Dynamic range is the ratio between the signal ceiling over the noise floor and is usually measured in decibels (dB).

Human eardrums normally have dynamic range of about 60 to 100dB in the range of 10Hz to 10kHz, and our hearing quickly decreases outside this frequency range. Other animals, such as the common house cat or beluga whale, can have comparable or even wider dynamic ranges in higher frequency bands.

The vibrating nanoscale drumheads developed by Feng and his team are made of atomic layers of semiconductor crystals (single-, bi-, tri-, and four-layer MoS2 flakes, with thickness of 0.7, 1.4, 2.1, and 2.8 nanometers), with diameters only about 1 micron.

They construct them by exfoliating individual atomic layers from the bulk semiconductor crystal and using a combination of nanofabrication and micromanipulation techniques to suspend the atomic layers over microcavities predefined on a silicon wafer, and then making electrical contacts to the devices.

Further, these atomically thin RF resonators being tested at Case Western Reserve show excellent frequency ‘tunability,’ meaning their tones can be manipulated by stretching the drumhead membranes using electrostatic forces, similar to the sound tuning in much larger musical instruments in an orchestra, Feng said.

The study also reveals that these incredibly small drumheads only need picoWatt (pW, 10^-12 Watt) up to nanoWatt (nW, 10^-9 Watt) level of RF power to sustain their high frequency oscillations.

“Not only having surprisingly large dynamic range with such tiny volume and mass, they are also energy-efficient and very ‘quiet’ devices,” Feng said. “We ‘listen’ to them very carefully and ‘talk’ to them very gently.”

The paper’s co-authors were: Jaesung Lee, a Case Western Reserve post-doctoral research associate; Max Zenghui Wang, a former research associate now at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China; Keliang He, a former graduate student in physics, now a senior engineer at Nvidia; Rui Yang, a former graduate student and now a post-doctoral scholar at Stanford University; and Jie Shan, a former physics professor at Case Western Reserve now at Cornell University.

The work has been financially supported by the National Academy of Engineering Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering Award (Grant: FOE 2013-005) and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (Grant: ECCS-1454570).

Original Paper: Lee J, Wang Z, He K, Yang R, Shan J, Feng PX-L. Electrically tunable single- and few-layer MoS2nanoelectromechanical systems with broad dynamic range. Science Advances. 2018;4(3):eaao6653.

Source: Case Western Reserve University, Science Advances

Researchers Find Increased Risk of Hearing Loss Among Smokers

Researchers Find Increased Risk of Hearing Loss Among Smokers

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New research published in Nicotine & Tobacco Researchhas shown evidence that smoking is associated with hearing loss, according to a news release from the journal’s publisher, Oxford Press.

The study—which included 50,000 participants over an 8-year period—looked at data from annual health checkups, which included factors such as smoking status, number of cigarettes smoked per day, and the duration of smoking cessation on hearing loss, according to the release. Researchers calculated a 1.2 to 1.6 increased risk of hearing loss among smokers as compared to those who had never smoked before.

The risk of hearing loss decreased five years after smoking cessation.

For additional information, please click here to view the release on Science Daily’s website.

Original Paper: Hu H, Sasaki N, Ogasawara T, et al. Smoking, smoking cessation, and the risk of hearing loss: Japan epidemiology collaboration on occupational health study. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. March 14, 2018.

Source: Science Daily, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Oxford Press

Researchers Develop New Technique to Determine Speech Comprehension

Researchers Develop New Technique to Determine Speech Comprehension

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Neuroscientists from The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)—a research university in Flanders, Belgium—measured brainwaves to determine whether people understand what they heard, the university announced on its website.

The new technique was developed by Professor Tom Francart and his colleagues from the Department of Neurosciences at KU Leuven in collaboration with the University of Maryland. According to the announcement, the technique will allow for a more accurate diagnosis of patients who cannot actively participate in a speech understanding test because they’re too young, for instance, or because they’re in a coma. In the longer term, the method also holds potential for the development of smart hearing devices.

Tom Francart, KU Leuven Research Group, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology.

Tom Francart, KU Leuven Research Group, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology.

A common complaint from people with a hearing aid is that they can hear speech but they can’t make out its meaning. Indeed, being able to hear speech and actually understanding what’s being said are two different things.

The tests to determine whether you can hear soft sounds are well established. Just think of the test used by audiologists whereby you have to indicate whether you hear “beep” sounds. An alternative option makes use of EEG, which is often used to test newborns and whereby click sounds are presented through small caps over the ears. Electrodes on the head then measure whether any brainwaves develop in response to these sounds.

The great advantage of EEG is that it is objective and that the person undergoing the test doesn’t have to do anything. “This means that the test works regardless of the listener’s state of mind,” says co-author Jonathan Simon from the University of Maryland. “We don’t want a test that would fail just because someone stopped paying attention.”

Jonathan Simon, Professor ECE, ISR, BIO, University of Maryland, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Jonathan Simon,
ECE, ISR, BIO, Professor, University of Maryland, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

But to test speech understanding, the options are much more limited, explains lead author Tom Francart from KU Leuven: “Today, there’s only one way to test speech understanding. First, you hear a word or sentence. You then have to repeat it so that the audiologist can check whether you have understood it. This test obviously requires the patient’s active cooperation.”

Therefore, scientists set out to find an EEG-based method that can measure hearing as well as speech understanding completely automatically.

“And we’ve succeeded,” said Tom Francart. “Our technique uses 64 electrodes to measure someone’s brainwaves while they listen to a sentence. We combine all these measurements and filter out the irrelevant information. If you move your arm, for instance, that creates brainwaves as well. So we filter out the brainwaves that aren’t linked to the speech sound as much as possible. We compare the remaining signal with the original sentence. That doesn’t just tell us whether you’ve heard something but also whether you have understood it.”

The way this happens is quite similar to comparing two sound files on your computer: when you open the sound files, you sometimes see two figures with sound waves. Tom Francart: “Now, imagine comparing the original sound file of the sentence you’ve just heard and a different sound file derived from your brainwaves. If there is sufficient similarity between these two files, it means that you have properly understood the message.”

This new technique makes it possible to objectively and automatically determine whether someone understands what’s being said. This is particularly useful in the case of patients who cannot respond, including patients in a coma.

The findings can also help to develop ‘smart’ hearing aids and cochlear implants, Francart said: “Existing devices only ensure that you can hear sounds. But with built-in recording electrodes, the device would be able to measure how well you have understood the message and whether it needs to adjust its settings—depending on the amount of background noise, for instance.”

This research was funded by the European Research Council (GA 637424), the Research Foundation–Flanders (FWO), and KU Leuven.

Source: KU Leuven

Images: KU Leuven, University of Maryland

Which hearing aids are best for me?

Which hearing aids are best for me?

Honiton and South Devon is the place to get your hearing test along with your earwax removed.

You’ve been diagnosed with hearing loss and the hearing healthcare professional says you’ll benefit from wearing hearing aids, but which devices are best for you? The decision you make will depend greatly on the severity of your hearing loss as well as your health and the lifestyle you lead. Before you sit down to discuss options with your hearing healthcare provider, here are a few things to consider.

Are you a technology buff?

best hearing aids for me
Your hearing aids should be as individual
as you are!

Hearing aids have changed a lot in the last ten years. Today’s devices are nothing like those your parents or grandparents may have worn, mainly because of advances in technology. While your parents’ hearing aids had to be adjusted with a tiny screwdriver by a hearing care provider, today’s digital devices are programmed via computer. Gone are the days of fiddling around with bulky volume control wheels and buttons. Most of today’s devices can be controlled discreetly by the wearer with smartphone apps as listening environments change. Bluetooth technology allows hearing aids to connect wirelessly to that smartphone you bought the moment it became available, tablets, televisions or car audio.

How much of a techie are you? Chances are, there’s a hearing aid that can keep up with your fascination for cutting edge gadgets. If you’re not a technology lover, don’t despair – the technology in your new hearing aids can also work behind the scenes automatically so you can just focus on hearing your best.

Is your world noisy?

Let’s face it — life can be loud! Depending upon what you do for a living and how often you’re socially engaged with people you love spending time with, directional microphone technology can help you make sense of that noise. Dual microphones in the hearing aid work to help you understand speech in challenging listening environments such as noisy conventions, crowded restaurants and bars or a family room filled with chattering children by focusing on the sound directly in front of you and minimizing sound to the sides and back.

Nearly all hearing aids today have some form of noise reduction built in. This technology is best for increasing your comfort in noisy situations, but it’s the directional microphones that have a noticeable impact on your ability to understand conversation in these same situations. Be honest about your lifestyle and talk with your hearing care provider about which features you need.

Are you self-conscious about your hearing loss?

Let’s be clear: there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wearing hearing aids — no matter whether they’re visible to others standing close to you or fit snugly out of sight inside your ear canal. These miracle devices not only help you hear your favorite sounds, they also alert you to emergency warning signals and decrease your risk of falling, developing dementia and feeling depressed. What’s not to love?

Unfortunately, some prefer to be more discreet about their hearing loss. For those individuals, tiny receiver-in-the-canal (RIC) or receiver-in-the-ear (RITE) styles with ultra-thin tubing and an availability of colors which blend with skin or hair may be desirable. For even more invisibility, invisible-in-the-canal (IIC) or completely-in-the-canal (CIC) styles may be an option.

The discretion of small hearing aids can come with some tradeoffs. Your hearing healthcare professional can help you decide, given the severity of your hearing loss and your personal preferences, which style is best for you.

Do you have dexterity issues?

Diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and other health conditions can cause numbness in the fingers or a decline in fine motor skills. The smaller the hearing aid, the smaller the features — such as the battery door or volume control. If you struggle with putting on jewelry or activities which require fine motor skills, you will likely benefit from wearing hearing aids that fit behind-the-ear (BTE) or a larger custom style. It’s much better to own devices you can operate confidently and effectively than one which frustrates you so much it spends more time in your nightstand than in your ear.

Summary

It’s important to remember that no two people or their hearing losses are alike, but there are hearing aids to suit most every need. The best hearing aids are the ones that work for you. Instead of waiting to make a decision because you’re afraid you’ll make the wrong one, find a hearing healthcare professional to guide you. Working as a team, the two of you can determine which devices will work for your unique hearing situation. Check out our directory of consumer-reviewed clinics to get started.