Discovery of a deafness-causing gene defect in mice has helped identify a new protein that protects sensory cells in the ear, according to a study by University of Iowa and Kansas State University researchers. The findings appear in the August 21 issue of the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

Listening for faint rustling noises made by tasty beetles on a quiet day is simple for bats hunting with their exquisitely sensitive hearing. So try imagining what it must be like trying to locate rustling treats just metres from a roaring highway.

Scientists based in Switzerland and South Africa have created a biophysical methodology that may help to overcome hearing deficits, and potentially remedy even substantial hearing loss. The authors propose a method of retuning functioning regions of the ear to recognize frequencies originally associated with damaged areas.

The sound of a noisy Chicago restaurant during the breakfast rush — the clang of plates and silverware and the clamor of many voices — was the crucial test of new hearing aid technology in a study conducted by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Ernest Moore, an audiologist and cell biologist at Northwestern University, developed tinnitus -- a chronic ringing and whooshing sound in his ears -- twenty years ago after serving in the U.S. Army reserves medical corps. His hearing was damaged by the crack of too many M16 rifles and artillery explosions. He suspects his hearing also suffered from hunting opossum with rifles as a kid on his grandmother's farm in Tennessee.

Three studies published in the May 2008 edition of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery reveal substantial new findings in several areas of hearing health, including research that indicates that patients with profound hearing loss benefit substantially from having cochlear implants placed in both ears, rather than one, as is the common practice.

Specifically, it is the shape of the cochlea – the snail-shell-shaped organ in the inner ear that converts sound waves into nerve impulses that the brain deciphers – which proves to be surprisingly important.

The doctoral thesis of Isaac Manuel Álvarez Ruiz has been developed in the Departments of Signal Theory, Telematics, and Communication, and Surgery and its Specialties of the University of Granada, and directed by Professors Ángel de la Torre Vega and Manuel Sainz Quevedo.

Just picture the scene: you’re at a cocktail party, talking to someone you would like to get to know better but the background noise is making it hard to concentrate. Luckily, humans are very gifted at listening to someone speaking while many other people are talking loudly at the same time.

A new study, led by researchers at The Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH) of the MUHC, has revealed that certain over-the-counter earwax softeners can cause severe inflammation and damage to the eardrum and inner ear.

Recognising people, objects or animals by the sound they make is an important survival skill and something most of us take for granted. But very similar objects can physically make very dissimilar sounds and we are able to pick up subtle clues about the identity and source of the sound.

Think about the confused feelings that occur when you meet someone whose tone of voice doesn’t seem to quite fit with his or her gender.