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INTRO: The well-established Gaps-In-Noise (GIN) test is a reliable measure of temporal processing. However, the time required for test administration is approximately 17 minutes, which is not reasonable for most instances of clinical applicability. This test has shown to have promising applicability in varying areas for audiologic care. If the time it takes to complete the GIN could be reduced while maintaining its diagnostic value, more clinicians may be willing to utilize the procedure. Temporal processing, the function of sound perception based on acoustic characteristics defined within the time domain, is significant in one’s ability to detect and appropriately integrate and interpret auditory signals. The appropriate function of this process relies on a structurally sound central auditory nervous system. There are several tests that can be useful in addressing difficulties with listening and understanding experienced by the individual, such as speech-in-noise tests or tests of temporal processing, including the GIN. However, the GIN is not influenced by the individual's native language, like speech-in-noise tests, and is sensitive to dysfunction of the central auditory nervous system while utilizing a simple button indicator for positive detection. PURPOSE: The aims of this pilot study were to 1) verify and validate thresholds of the QuickGIN, a modification of the GIN, by comparing gap detection thresholds measured via the GIN and QuickGIN, 2) determine the test-retest reliability of the QuickGIN, and 3) evaluate possible ear differences. An additional aim was to 1) measure the average duration of test administration for the QuickGIN and 2) determine the number of trials necessary to establish a stable gap detection threshold. A third tertiary aim was to describe the possible relationships between the gap detection thresholds from both measures and 1) Quick SIN scores, 2) extended high-frequency thresholds, 3) Fletcher PTA, 4) sensorineural hearing loss, 5) co

Background: Individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) are in a race against time as they contend with the rapid decline of communication ability. Research demonstrates that even in the presence of progressive neurodegeneration, some individuals with PPA can improve language function in response to behavioral intervention. In addition, a growing body of evidence suggests that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can potentiate the effects of speech-language treatment and improve generalization. Word retrieval deficits, which arise from disruption to critical components of the distributed language network, are ubiquitous in aphasia and the most common focus of behavioral treatment with tDCS. By contrast, relatively little attention has been directed toward improving underlying cognitive processes associated with focal cortical atrophy patterns characteristic of the recognized variants of PPA. In this study, we focused on remediation of phonological impairments that are prominent when left perisylvian regions are dysfunctional as observed in the logopenic and nonfluent/agrammatic variants of PPA. Specifically, we hypothesized that behavioral intervention intended to strengthen phonological manipulation skills and sound-letter correspondences—coupled with tDCS—has the potential to improve written language abilities. Methods: Twelve individuals with the logopenic or nonfluent/agrammatic variants of PPA and 24 neurotypical controls participated in this study. All participants completed structural and functional neuroimaging and comprehensive neuropsychological testing. Pre-treatment assessment revealed marked impairment of phonological skill as well as deficits in spoken and written language function associated with damage to left perisylvian regions in the PPA group. Six participants were randomized to receive phonological intervention with active tDCS in Phase 1, and six were randomized to receive treatment with sham stimulation. After a two-month bre

Purpose: To determine if simultaneous bithermal caloric irrigations can be used as an accurate screening measure of vestibular function when compared to conventional alternating bithermal caloric irrigations. Additionally, to reassess if simultaneous caloric irrigations are considered more comfortable than alternating caloric irrigations.Methods: Twelve participants were asked to rate their baseline comfort levels using the Wong-Baker FACES scale, then underwent caloric irrigation testing. All participants were then irrigated six times under the following conditions: simultaneous warm water irrigations, simultaneous cool water irrigations, right warm water irrigations, left warm water irrigations, right cool water irrigations, and left cool water irrigations. Using an adapted Jongkees' formula, a criteria for abnormality was calculated; that is, the minimum difference in velocity of nystagmus that needed to exist between the ears in order to calculate a unilateral vestibular weakness above 20% was determined. The criteria for abnormality was then compared to velocity of nystagmus measured during simultaneous caloric irrigations. Additionally, participants were asked to rate their comfort level after ear irrigation, which was then compared using a Friedman’s Analysis of Variance by Ranks and pairwise comparisons. Results: Ten out of the twelve participants had normal results during alternating caloric irrigations, the majority of which showed nystagmus during simultaneous caloric irrigations that was measured below or close to the criteria for abnormality. Two out of the twelve participants showed abnormal results during alternating caloric irrigations; for simultaneous irrigations, one participant’s results were below the criteria for abnormality while the other participant was above the criteria for abnormality. A Friedman’s analysis indicated that differences in comfort ratings existed between the trials, and pairwise comparisons confirmed that simultaneous irriga

Background: It has recently been demonstrated that the importance of the auditory system’s contribution to the perception of posture and mobility increases in cases where input from other systems, such as vestibular peripheral, somatosensory, and visual, is reduced or compromised There is a growing interest in how auditory cues serve as an additional input that aids in postural stability, gait and balance, and self-motion perception. Recent evidence from other investigators reveals that auditory information may be used to improve all of these, but the process is poorly understood and requires further research. However, it would appear that preliminary information from these studies makes a strong case for clinicians to consider the importance of audition when developing treatment plans for people with hearing loss that may also be experiencing ongoing vestibular involvement. This research project aims to determine the effect of hearing status on static stability while standing and dynamic movement by measuring postural sway, gait speed, and step length using multiple wireless gait sensors. Methods: Individuals were fitted with an array of Opal sensors and were asked to complete five randomly ordered tasks (aka “conditions”). Each condition began with a measure of postural sway as a baseline. Vision was denied in all but one condition. Postural sway was measured by having participants stand upright with their feet at shoulder width, lined up at the starting mark with hands on their hips for 30 seconds. Participants then would complete another postural sway measure that immediately preceded the dynamic gait task where participants would walk down the track and return to the start position. For each “sway into walk” condition visual cues and auditory input were manipulated. Results: Mean values for postural sway and gait/lower limb support were compared to normative data from other studies using the same gait sensor technology. Mean values for postural sway were compar

Purpose The purpose of this study was to develop and administer a survey to the University of Arizona College of Science to assess students, faculty, and staff’s awareness of the profession of audiology and hearing healthcare. Method A survey was administered in 2023 to the University of Arizona’s College of Science students, faculty, and staff. Survey questions included questions asking participants to describe what an audiologist does. In addition, participants were asked to describe other healthcare professions, including podiatry, optometry, neuropsychology, speech language pathology, and teacher of the deaf. Participants were also asked questions related to hearing loss and hearing healthcare. Results Participants within the speech language and hearing sciences department had more awareness of the profession of audiology than those outside of the department. Furthermore, individuals outside of the speech language and hearing sciences department were surer of their knowledge of other healthcare professions, such as podiatry and optometry, than audiology. Conclusion Data from this survey may serve as a baseline for knowledge related to audiology and hearing healthcare among a university population. This data may be used to create a targeted hearing healthcare program for this niche population. A secondary aim of this study was to explore student’s knowledge of the profession of audiology to inform future avenues for recruitment into the profession.

Background: It has recently been demonstrated that the importance of the auditory system’s contribution to the perception of posture and mobility increases in cases where input from other systems, such as vestibular peripheral, somatosensory, and visual, is reduced or compromised There is a growing interest in how auditory cues serve as an additional input that aids in postural stability, gait and balance, and self-motion perception. Recent evidence from other investigators reveals that auditory information may be used to improve all of these, but the process is poorly understood and requires further research. However, it would appear that preliminary information from these studies makes a strong case for clinicians to consider the importance of audition when developing treatment plans for people with hearing loss that may also be experiencing ongoing vestibular involvement. This research project aims to determine the effect of hearing status on static stability while standing and dynamic movement by measuring postural sway, gait speed, and step length using multiple wireless gait sensors. Methods: Individuals were fitted with an array of Opal sensors and were asked to complete five randomly ordered tasks (aka “conditions”). Each condition began with a measure of postural sway as a baseline. Vision was denied in all but one condition. Postural sway was measured by having participants stand upright with their feet at shoulder width, lined up at the starting mark with hands on their hips for 30 seconds. Participants then would complete another postural sway measure that immediately preceded the dynamic gait task where participants would walk down the track and return to the start position. For each “sway into walk” condition visual cues and auditory input were manipulated. Results: Mean values for postural sway and gait/lower limb support were compared to normative data from other studies using the same gait sensor technology. Mean values for postural sway were compar

The configuration of the vocal tract acoustically transforms the sound produced by the vibration of the vocal folds into the vowels and consonants listeners recognize as speech or song. Although the phonetic components of speech are well known to be produced by modulating the vocal tract with expansions and constrictions, the focus of this study was on understanding how specific types of vocalizations targeted to enhance voice quality generate refinements of the vocal tract shape through further selective widening (expansions/lengthening) and narrowing (constrictions/contractions).Positioned between the vocal folds (source) and vocal tract (filter), the epilarynx has been proposed to play a critical role in vowel identity and voice quality. Yet, the physiological changes or series of modifications that take place in this region during specific types of vocalization are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to provide a better understanding of vocal tract shapes across several voicing profiles, commonly used during clinical interventions for the treatment of voice disorders, by quantifying them using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Much of audiology education occurs in clinical settings with students working closely with aclinical instructor and with real patients. Although these pedagogical experiences are not in a traditional classroom, clinical education nonetheless can and should be intentionally designed. The scholarship of teaching and learning as a field has theoretical and evidence-based design frameworks that appear, thus far, not to have been cohesively applied to clinical education in audiology. This paper will examine the theory and research on Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning along with the current research on clinical education in audiology using a critically appraised topic approach. Fink’s Taxonomy appears to be well-positioned to provide a cohesive, theoretically-ground, evidence-based framework for understanding, researching, and improving clinical audiology education. Both areas are used to inform a step-by-step guide on employing an evidence-based theory to design a clinical education experience.

Deficits in phonology are among the most common and persistent impairments in aphasia after left hemisphere stroke, and can have significant functional consequences for spoken and written language. While many individuals make considerable gains through physiological restitution and in response to treatment, the neural substrates supporting phonological performance in the face of damage to critical language regions is poorly understood. To address this issue, we used BOLD fMRI to measure regional brain activation in a case series of individuals with aphasia after left MCA stroke during a phonological task. The results of this study support the idea that damage to even a portion of the phonological network results in impaired phonological processing. We found that individuals with left perisylvian damage tend to rely on the residual left-hemisphere language network, and typically recruit regions associated with domain-general cognitive processing which fall outside of the left-hemisphere language network. However, recruitment of these regions did not necessarily enhance phonological processing. Rather, more successful phonological processing outside the scanner was associated with recruitment of a language region in right posterior middle temporal gyrus and a region in left occipital pole. More successful phonological processing inside the scanner was associated with additional recruitment of the left supramarginal gyrus within the healthy control network, engagement of bilateral intraparietal sulcus from the multi-demand network, and up-regulation of the right-hemisphere network of regions homotopic to the left-hemisphere language network seen in the healthy control group. These findings emphasize the contributions of residual components of the left-hemisphere language network, engagement of a non-linguistic domain-general multi-demand network, and the participation of the non-dominant right-hemisphere language network in successful phonological processing in chronic

One of the fundamental challenges for communication by speech is the variability in speech production/acoustics. Talkers vary in the size and shape of their vocal tract, in dialect, and in speaking mannerisms. These differences all impact the acoustic output. Despite this lack of invariance in the acoustic signal, listeners can correctly perceive the speech of many different talkers. This ability to adapt one's perception to the particular acoustic structure of a talker has been investigated for over fifty years. The prevailing explanation for this phenomenon is that listeners construct talker-specific representations that can serve as referents for subsequent speech sounds. Specifically, it is thought that listeners may either be creating mappings between acoustics and phonemes or extracting the vocal tract anatomy and shape for each individual talker. This research focuses on an alternative explanation. A separate line of work has demonstrated that much of the variance between talkers' productions can be captured in their neutral vocal tract shape (that is, the average shape of their vocal tract across multiple vowel productions). The current model tested is that listeners compute an average spectrum (long term average spectrum - LTAS) of a talker's speech and use it as a referent. If this LTAS resembles the acoustic output of the neutral vocal tract shape - the neutral vowel - then it could accommodate some of the talker based variability. The LTAS model results in four main hypotheses: 1) during carrier phrases, listeners compute an LTAS for the talker; 2) this LTAS resembles the spectrum of the neutral vowel; 3) listeners represent subsequent targets relative to this LTAS referent; 4) such a representation reduces talker-specific acoustic variability. The goal of this project was to further develop and test the predictions arising from these hypotheses. Results suggest that the LTAS model needs to be further investigated, as the simple model proposed does not e

Asymmetries of the vocal folds and vocal fold vibration are key features underlying unilateral vocal fold motion impairment (VFMI). The knowledge of what particular asymmetries contribute to breathy voice and which asymmetries must be eliminated to re-establish normal voice will be important to improving evaluation and treatment of VFMI. It was hypothesized that several structural and vibratory asymmetries should lead to predictable changes in the glottal area, flow, and acoustic waveforms, and subsequently a perceived breathy voice quality. The purpose of this project was threefold: 1) to determine how specific vocal fold structural and vibratory asymmetries alter vocal function and perceived voice quality, 2) to determine the improvement in vocal function and voice quality in an abnormal voice with elimination of individual asymmetries, and 3) to develop a battery of vocal function measures that vary with dysphonia in a predictable manner. The approach was to use a computational kinematic model of vocal fold vibration that allows for differential left/right control of parameters such as vocal fold adduction, medial surface bulging, vibratory nodal point, phase, amplitude of vibration, and fundamental frequency. The resultant signals were subjected to aerodynamic and acoustic measurement as well as perceptual rating of voice quality. Results revealed that the degree of vocal process separation was the most influential parameter tested, though asymmetry of bulging, nodal point ratio, and starting phase worsened normal voice quality. Conversely, increased symmetry of bulging, nodal point ratio, amplitude of vibration and starting phase improved disordered voice quality. The amount of improvement to disordered voices varied based on the number of other asymmetries present. None of the six vocal function measures tested were primarily responsive to one particular model parameter, though four measures generally decreased as vocal process separation increased: maximum fl

The cognitive impairment associated with PD involves a broad range of deficits including difficulty with executive functions such as working memory, inhibition, decision-making, and cognitive multitasking, learning, and visuoperceptual skills. Even early in the disease, when motor symptoms tend to predominate, there is evidence that cognitive functions can be compromised. Owing to the presence of executive-type dysfunction in PD, some researchers likened the cognitive deficit of PD to that seen with frontal lobe damage. The anatomical basis of PD, however, suggests otherwise. Dopamine depletion in the basal ganglia, and the downstream depletion of dopamine in the frontostriatal circuitry is often thought to be the foundation of the cognitive deficits associated with PD.In addition to cognitive impairments, a language deficit attends Parkinson's disease (PD) alongside the other motor and non-motor aspects of the disease. This language deficit is characterized by difficulty processing various types of figurative language, and has been associated with various PD-related cognitive deficits, such as deficits in working memory (WM). Varied assessment tools have been used to characterize the neuropsychological functions associated with this language deficit, most of which involve some measure of frontally-based cognitive skills.The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of frontal lobe function on higher-level language function in the non-demented PD (NDPD) population. To investigate this influence, the performance of two groups of participants (i.e., one NDPD group and one control group) was compared on both a proverb interpretation task and on a statistically derived measure of frontal lobe function.Results indicated a relation between performance on the measure of frontal lobe function and performance on the proverb interpretation task in the PD group only. Significant findings are discussed in relation to the neuropsychological underpinnings of the figurati