Hearing Impairment News

January 26, 2025

Top Headlines

Reading Signs: New Method Improves AI Translation of Sign Language

Jan. 15, 2025 — A research team improved the AI recognition accuracy of word-level sign language recognition by adding data such as the signer's hand and facial expressions, as well as skeletal information on the position of the hands relative to the ...

Hearing Impairment May Be a Sign of Increased Risk of Parkinson's Disease

Jan. 14, 2025 — There may be a link between hearing impairment and an increased risk of developing Parkinson's according to new research. This is one of the first studies to examine whether sensory impairments, such as hearing loss, might increase the risk for ...

United States Dementia Cases Estimated to Double by 2060

Jan. 13, 2025 — A new study shows that the risk of developing dementia anytime after age 55 among Americans is 42%, more than double the risk reported by older ...

Acoustic Sensors Find Frequent Gunfire on School Walking Routes

Jan. 6, 2025 — A new study used acoustic sensors that detect the sound of gunfire to show how often children in one Chicago neighborhood are exposed to gunshots while walking to and from school. Results showed that nearly two-thirds of schools in the Englewood ...

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Mixed Signals: How the Brain Interprets Social Cues

Jan. 6, 2025 — Researchers have found that smell and sound signals merge in the mouse brain's hearing center, influencing social behaviors like pup retrieval. The discovery may lead to a better understanding of how ...

Breaking Barriers: Study Uses AI to Interpret American Sign Language in Real-Time

Dec. 16, 2024 — A study is the first-of-its-kind to recognize American Sign Language (ASL) alphabet gestures using computer vision. Researchers developed a custom ...

Study Breaks the Silence on How Fish and Lizards Regenerate Hearing

Dec. 9, 2024 — A new study has identified key gene regulators that enable some deafened animals -- including fish and lizards -- to naturally regenerate their hearing. The findings could guide future efforts to ...

Online Training Could Help Older Adults Communicate in Noisy Environments

Dec. 9, 2024 — Online training that helps people recognize and understand new voices could be key to helping older adults improve communication in everyday environments, finds new ...

Mothers' Language Choices Have Double the Impact in Bilingual Families

Dec. 10, 2024 — New research shows that mothers have twice the impact on language exposure, challenging traditional parenting advice. In a new study, researchers found that there wasn't a single strategy that could ...

Brain Mapping Advances Understanding of Human Speech and Hallucinations in Schizophrenia

Dec. 3, 2024 — Voice experiments in people with epilepsy have helped trace the circuit of electrical signals in the brain that allow its hearing center to sort out ...

Listening for Early Signs of Alzheimer's Disease

Nov. 20, 2024 — People with Alzheimer's exhibit a loss of motor control along with cognitive decline, and one of the earliest signs of this decay can be spotted in involuntary eye movements known as saccades. These ...

New Study Sheds Light on Language Development in Children With Hearing Loss

Nov. 14, 2024 — Researchers find a link between early vocabulary composition and later language development in children with cochlear ...

Early Treatment for Nerve Tumors Prevents Serious Problems, Study Finds

Nov. 12, 2024 — Small cranial nerve tumors that can cause hearing loss, vertigo and ringing in the ears are often watched rather than treated, but a new study is set to change how the tumors, called vestibular ...

Adding Vagus Nerve Stimulation to Training Sessions May Boost How Well Sounds Are Perceived

Oct. 9, 2024 — Just as a musician can train to more sharply distinguish subtle differences in pitch, mammals can improve their ability to interpret hearing, vision, ...

Researchers Identify Basic Approaches for How People Recognize Words

Aug. 29, 2024 — Recognizing spoken words is a split-second competition, and a new study defines how people approach that competition and ultimately recognize words. The researchers identified three main approaches ...

Declining Senses Can Impact Mental Health and Loneliness in Aging Adults

Aug. 22, 2024 — Researchers found that people who develop sensory disabilities with age tend to have worse mental health, and that different types of sensory disability are associated with different aspects of ...

Dozing at the Wheel? Not With These Fatigue-Detecting Earbuds

Aug. 6, 2024 — To help protect drivers and machine operators from the dangers of drifting off, engineers have created prototype earbuds that can detect the signs of drowsiness in the brain. In a new study, the ...

With Gene Editing, Mice With a Form of Inherited Deafness Can Hear Again

July 12, 2024 — Researchers have used gene editing to restore hearing in adult mice with a type of inherited hearing loss. They showed that shutting down a damaged copy of a gene called a microRNA (miRNA) enabled ...

Researchers Uncover Brain Region's Role in Hearing and Learning

July 11, 2024 — The human brain is remarkably adept at adjusting what we hear based on contexts, like our current environment or priorities, but it's still unknown how exactly the brain helps us detect, filter ...

Chemo Drug May Cause Significant Hearing Loss in Longtime Cancer Survivors

June 28, 2024 — A new study tracked a cohort of testicular cancer survivors who received cisplatin-based chemotherapy for an average of 14 years, revealing that 78% experience significant difficulties in everyday ...

First Case of Down Syndrome in Neanderthals Documented in New Study

June 26, 2024 — A new study documents the first case of Down syndrome in Neanderthals and reveals that they were capable of providing altruistic care and support for a vulnerable member of their social ...

First Week After Birth Is Critical for Development of Senses

June 11, 2024 — Researchers have found that the maturation of the senses for smell and touch is closely linked in mice and that this strong interaction takes place within a narrow developmental time window. These ...

New Gene Therapy Trial Shows Restored Hearing and Speech in Children Born Deaf, Treated in Both Ears

June 5, 2024 — A new clinical trial of five children with inherited deafness found administering gene therapy in both ears led to restored hearing and speech, and additional gains including sound source ...

Infants Hear Significantly More Speech Than Music at Home

May 30, 2024 — A new study has compared the amount of music and speech that children hear in infancy. Results showed that infants hear more spoken language than music, with the gap widening as the babies get ...

AI Headphones Let Wearer Listen to a Single Person in a Crowd, by Looking at Them Just Once

May 24, 2024 — Engineers have developed an artificial intelligence system that lets someone wearing headphones look at a person speaking for three to five seconds to 'enroll' them. The system then plays ...

What Factors Predict When Older Adults Will Stop Driving?

May 22, 2024 — What factors lead older adults to stop driving? A new study followed older adults who had no memory or thinking problems to examine this ...

AI-Powered Headphones Filter Only Unwanted Noise

May 16, 2024 — Noise-canceling headphones automatically identify background sounds and cancel them out for much-needed peace and quiet. However, typical noise-canceling fails to distinguish between unwanted ...

Why Getting in Touch With Our 'Gerbil Brain' Could Help Machines Listen Better

May 7, 2024 — Researchers have debunked a 75-year-old theory about how humans determine where sounds are coming from, and it could unlock the secret to creating a next generation of more adaptable and efficient ...

Participants of Pioneering CRISPR Gene Editing Trial See Vision Improve

May 6, 2024 — About 79% of clinical trial participants experienced measurable improvement after receiving experimental, CRISPR-based gene editing that is designed to fix a rare form of blindness, according to a ...

The Sense of Smell Is Influenced by Cues from Other Senses

Apr. 5, 2024 — The sense of smell is highly influenced by the cues from other senses, while the sense of sight and hearing are affected to a much lesser extent, shows a new ...

Hearing Study: Each Nerve Fiber Trains on It's Own

Mar. 6, 2024 — Axons that are regularly stimulated do not pass on increases in performance to their neighbors, study on mice ...

Factors Associated With Age-Related Hearing Loss Differ Between Males and Females

Mar. 6, 2024 — Certain factors associated with developing age-related hearing loss differ by sex, including weight, smoking behavior, and hormone exposure, according to a new ...

Can They Hear You Now? Kids Increasingly Exposed to Noise Health Risks Via Earbuds and Headphones

Feb. 26, 2024 — While it's not surprising to spot teens wearing headphones and earbuds, it's also becoming a widespread trend among younger children, a national poll ...

Scientists Discover Biological Mechanism of Hearing Loss Caused by Loud Noise -- And Find a Way to Prevent It

Feb. 12, 2024 — Drugs that trap excess zinc in the inner ear could help restore lost hearing or, if administered before an expected loud sound exposure, can protect from hearing loss, study ...