A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has discovered a genetic cause of progressive hearing loss. The findings will help scientists better understand the nature of age-related decline in hearing and may lead to new therapies to prevent or treat the condition.

The new tiny Lyric hearing aid, designed by Dr. Robert Schindler, may be the answer to self-conscious worries held by many people suffering from hearing loss. Its size and versatility combined with the way it is held in the ear makes the Lyric hearing aid different from classic hearing aids, and much more appealing.

Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have elucidated the action of a protein, harmonin, which is involved in the mechanics of hearing loss. This finding sheds new light on the workings of mechanotransduction, the process by which cells convert mechanical stimuli into electrical activity.

Neuherberg, April 18, 2009. Scientists of Helmholtz Zentrum München have developed a new mouse model that can be associated with deafness. With this model they succeeded for the first time in showing that microRNA, a new class of genes, influences hearing loss.

Contrary to conventional medical wisdom, a new study by NYU Langone Medical Center researchers shows that healthy elderly patients with severe to profound hearing loss can undergo a surgical procedure to receive cochlear implants with minimal risk.

By tweaking a system in the ear that limits how much sound is heard, a global team of researchers has discovered one alteration that shows that the ability of the ear to turn itself down contributes to protecting against permanent hearing loss. The report appears this week in PLoS Biology.

Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss, accounts for 30 percent of all hearing loss. So, why do some people lose their hearing as they get older but other people can still hear a pin drop?

Researchers have defined a mutation in the mouse genome that mimics progressive hearing loss in humans. A team from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, working with colleagues in Munich and Padua, found that mice carrying a mutation called Oblivion displayed problems with the function of hair cells in the inner ear, occurring before clear physical effects are seen.

Several genes that play a role in how our body's cells normally auto-destruct may play a role in age-related hearing loss, according to research published online in the journal Apoptosis – a journal devoted to the topic of cell suicide, or programmed cell death.

Is hearing loss an early sign of Alzheimer's disease or related dementias? Central auditory testing may act as an early screen for cognitive decline in the elderly, researchers have said:

Leading experts in the study of hair cells and hearing loss will discuss state-of-the art developments in determining the genetic and environmental factors that cause Age-Related Hearing Impairment (ARHI) at the 2008 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO, in Chicago, IL.

Despite previous inconclusive research, geriatric patients do experience significant quality of life improvement (QOL) after receiving cochlear implants for hearing loss, says new research presented at the 2008 American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO in Chicago, IL.