Objective:To explore the effect of mild hearing loss on cognitive function by evaluating the Montreal Cognitive Assessment（MoCA） in idiopathic tinnitus patients with mild hearing loss. Methods:102 patients with idiopathic tinnitus（68 patients with normal hearing and 34 patients with mild hearing loss） whose first complaint is tinnitus and 34 healthy volunteers（control group） were included. All subjects were asked to fill the MoCA, Tinnitus Handicap Inventory（THI）, Self-rating Anxiety Scale（SAS）, Self-rating Depression Scale（SDS）, and Pittsburgh Sleep Index（PQSI） after collecting medical history, pure tone audiometry, tinnitus matching and masking test. The clinical characteristics and scores of each scale were compared among the groups. Results:The score and each dimension score of MoCA in idiopathic tinnitus patients with normal hearing were significantly lower than the normal population（P<0.05）; compared with patients with idiopathic tinnitus with normal hearing, patients with mild hearing loss were older（P<0.01） and had lower MoCA scores（P<0.05）. There was no significant difference in MoCA scores（P>0.05） between tinnitus patients with normal hearing and mild hearing loss after correcting confounding factors（age, gender, years of education, duration of tinnitus, frequency of tinnitus tones, side of tinnitus, THI score, SAS score, SDS score, and PQSI score）; idiopathic tinnitus patients with mild hearing loss scored significantly lower in attention and working memory dimensions than idiopathic tinnitus patients with normal hearing（P<0.01）. Conclusion:Patients with idiopathic tinnitus may have cognitive dysfunction, and mild hearing loss may not be a factor that promotes the further aggravation of cognitive dysfunction in patients with idiopathic tinnitus. The role of hearing loss in cognitive dysfunction in patients with idiopathic tinnitus needs further research.
Humans ; Tinnitus/psychology* ; Male ; Female ; Hearing Loss/complications* ; Middle Aged ; Mental Status and Dementia Tests ; Cognition ; Audiometry, Pure-Tone ; Case-Control Studies ; Adult

Humans ; Aged ; Processing Speed ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Cognition ; Hearing Loss/psychology* ; Cohort Studies ; Cognitive Dysfunction

Otitis media (OM) is the most prevalent disease of childhood and a public health problem in developed and developing countries. Despite appropriate treatment, acute OM can progress to chronic suppurative OM, characterized by effusion and discharge. Moreover, OM lead to conductive hearing loss during critical periods of language acquisition and risking permanent damage to the middle ear and inner ear in severe cases. The reasons for the chronicity of middle ear disease in 10 to 20% children are not clear. However, although many factors can contribute to OM, bacterial infection is considered to be a predominant etiology, producting inflammation characterized by mucosal hyperplasia, effusion, and leukocytic infiltration of middle ear. In this review, we review the role of innate immunity as it applies to OM and deal with recent progresses in understanding the role of innate immune cell in the middle ear epithelium.
Bacterial Infections ; Child ; Critical Period (Psychology) ; Developing Countries ; Ear, Inner ; Ear, Middle ; Epithelial Cells ; Epithelium ; Hearing Loss, Conductive ; Humans ; Hyperplasia ; Immunity, Innate* ; Inflammation ; Otitis Media* ; Otitis* ; Public Health

The acoustic change complex (ACC) is a cortical auditory evoked potential elicited in response to a change in an ongoing sound. The characteristics and potential clinical implications of the ACC are reviewed in this article. The P1-N1-P2 recorded from the auditory cortex following presentation of an acoustic stimulus is believed to reflect the neural encoding of a sound signal, but this provides no information regarding sound discrimination. However, the neural processing underlying behavioral discrimination capacity can be measured by modifying the traditional methodology for recording the P1-N1-P2. When obtained in response to an acoustic change within an ongoing sound, the resulting waveform is referred to as the ACC. When elicited, the ACC indicates that the brain has detected changes within a sound and the patient has the neural capacity to discriminate the sounds. In fact, results of several studies have shown that the ACC amplitude increases with increasing magnitude of acoustic changes in intensity, spectrum, and gap duration. In addition, the ACC can be reliably recorded with good test-retest reliability not only from listeners with normal hearing but also from individuals with hearing loss, hearing aids, and cochlear implants. The ACC can be obtained even in the absence of attention, and requires relatively few stimulus presentations to record a response with a good signal-to-noise ratio. Most importantly, the ACC shows reasonable agreement with behavioral measures. Therefore, these findings suggest that the ACC might represent a promising tool for the objective clinical evaluation of auditory discrimination and/or speech perception capacity.
Acoustics* ; Auditory Cortex ; Brain ; Cochlear Implants ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Evoked Potentials, Auditory ; Hearing ; Hearing Aids ; Hearing Loss ; Humans ; Signal-To-Noise Ratio ; Speech Perception

The incidence of bilateral profound hearing loss of newborns is 1 to 2 per 1,000 newborns. It is higher in infants with risk factors for hearing loss. Congenital hearing loss can cause many problems in language, learning, speech development and educational and occupational performance. Most developed countries have conducted the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS) with automated otoacoustic emissions (AOAE) or automated auditory brainstem response (AABR). UNHS reduced the average age of identification of permanent hearing loss in infants 6 months or less after birth. This early identification and intervention of hearing loss with amplification and speech therapy optimizes communication during the early critical period of language acquisition and can improve language outcomes in children between 2 and 5 years of age. The aims of this paper are to explain the incidence of newborn hearing loss, the importance of early detection of hearing loss and intervention and newborn hearing screening methods.
Child ; Critical Period (Psychology) ; Developed Countries ; Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem ; Hearing Loss* ; Hearing* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn* ; Learning ; Mass Screening* ; Neonatal Screening ; Parturition ; Risk Factors ; Speech Therapy

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the mental health level of the post-linguistic deafen adult, to analyze factors affecting the mental health level. METHOD: Fifty-two adult patients with severe to extremely severe post-linguistic hearing loss were randomly selected to participate the study. A self-reporting questionnaire drew up by researchers was used to collect sociological data of the participants. The self-rating anxiety scale (SAS), self-rating depression scale (SDS) and personal report of communication apprehension (PRCA-24) were used to measure the mental health degree of 52 post-linguistic hearing loss adults. To analyze related factors affecting the mental health in post-linguistic deafen adult. RESULT: (1) Majority of post-linguistic deafen adult have mental symptoms, including 24 subjects (46.15%) with anxiety feeling, 18 subjects (34.61%) with depression feeling and 45 subjects (86.54%) with communication apprehension. (2) Gander, with/without tinnitus, duration of hearing loss, education background and family support had significant correlation with the mental health level of subjects. Higher incident rate of mental symptoms were found in male (OR = 2.246), with tinnitus (OR = 0.536), short duration (OR = 1.397, 1.530), high education background (OR = 0.323) and poor family support (OR = 1.724). CONCLUSION The mental health of the post-linguistic deafen adult was worse than that of the normal people, pathological feature and sociological factors were significantly correlated to the psychological evaluation. It is very important to pay attention on mental health and to give effective counseling of hearing loss people.
Adult ; Anxiety ; complications ; Depression ; complications ; Female ; Hearing Loss ; complications ; psychology ; Humans ; Language Development ; Male ; Mental Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Tinnitus

OBJECTIVE: To analyze social-psychological causes of acute exacerbation or re-decompensation of chronic tinnitus and provide theoretical basis for controlling and preventing tinnitus exacerbation and re-decompensation. METHOD: Systemic audiological tests and tinnitus handicap inventory were performed on 136 chronic tinnitus patients with acuteexacerbation or re-decompensation. For the patients with new hearing loss, a further investigation of living conditions and assessment of social support rating scale were utilized. The patients with relatively definite causes were treated accordingly. RESULT: (1) There were 89 patients complained of new changes of hearing, all of whom could tell the definite time point of tinnitus exacerbation, and 5 of them felt the exacerbation of hearing loss meanwhile. (2) Forty-two patients encountered adverse events on life or working, and tinnitus exacerbation occurred within several weeks to 3 months afterwards. Most of these patients could not tell the definite time point of tinnitus exacerbation or re-decompensation. Five cases of tinnitus exacerbation didn't tell any adverse events on life or working, but showed mood disorders, and the anti-anxiety treatment was effective to them. (3) Forty-seven cases without new hearing loss scored significantly lower in SSRS than healthy adults. CONCLUSION Emerging hearing loss is the main cause of acute exacerbation of chronic tinnitus. To find it in time and give effective treatment can save newly presented hearing loss, cure or relieve tinnitus. Adverse events in life(or working) and short of social support is another important cause of acute exacerbation of chronic tinnitus or decompensation recurrence, which suggests that social-psychological factors besides of hearing loss should be concerned in diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus.
Adult ; Disease Progression ; Hearing Loss ; Humans ; Social Support ; Tinnitus ; psychology

Previous studies have shown that hearing loss people are more likely to have not only abnormal speech communication, but also psychological problems especially emotional disorders, cognitive impairments and personality defects. Therefore, it is necessary to provide psychological support to patients during they accept medical therapy.
Communication ; Hearing Loss ; complications ; psychology ; Humans ; Mental Disorders ; Mental Health ; Speech

OBJECTIVE: To Study the personality characteristics in patients with sudden deafness. METHOD: Thirty-eight sudden deafness patients and 45 healthy volunteers were assessed by Eysenck personality questionnaire (EPQ). RESULT: The standard scores of P, E, N dimensions of patients with sudden deafness were greater than healthy volunteers. The standard score in L dimensions of patients with sudden deafness was less than healthy volunteers. The difference of the standard score of P dimension revealed statistical significance (P < 0.05). The difference of the standard score of N dimension revealed statistical significance (P < 0.01). The difference of the standard scores of E, L dimensions revealed no statistical significance (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION Sudden deafness patients have emotional instability and psychoticism personality characteristics.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Case-Control Studies ; Female ; Hearing Loss, Sudden ; psychology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Personality ; Young Adult

Newborn hearing screening test is very important in the early diagnosis of childhood hearing loss because it affects language development. Auditory neuropathy is a spectrum disorder characterized by abnormal auditory brainstem response but preserved otoacoustic emission and cochlear microphonics. In general, auditory neuropathy patients have poor word discrimination and variable patterns of pure tone audiometry. We report on a patient with auditory neuropathy diagnosed at 16 months of age and started wearing hearing aids, but showed normal pure tone and speech audiometric findings 3 years later. Close follow-up for patients with auditory neuropathy is recommended.
Audiometry ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Early Diagnosis ; Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem ; Hearing Aids ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Language Development ; Mass Screening