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Introduction: The aim was to assess prevalence of tinnitus, hyperacusis, hearing and balance problems among patients recovered from COVID-19 infection. Self-reported ear and hearing symptoms were compared in three groups comprising: confirmed COVID-19, possible COVID-19, and non-COVID-19. Materials and Methods: 1649 participants completed the survey in this cross-sectional study. The mean age was 34 years and 65% were female. Participants with confirmed and possible COVID-19 were asked if after their infection (compared to the past) they experienced hearing loss, ringing or whistling noises, fullness or blockage in their ears, loudness of the sounds that are normal to other people bother them more (an indication of hyperacusis), dizziness, giddiness, or imbalance. Results: Among participants with confirmed COVID-19, 16% reported that compared to the past their hearing has decreased, 21.5% noticed tinnitus, 22.5% aural fullness, 26.1% hyperacusis and 17.3% balance problems. Regression models showed that compared to the non-COVID-19 group, participants with confirmed COVID-19 had odds ratios (ORs) of significantly greater than 1 in predicting presence of self-reported symptoms of hearing loss, tinnitus, aural fullness, hyperacusis and balance problems, OR=1.96 (p=0.001), OR=1.63 (p=0.003), OR=1.8 (p<0.001), OR=2.2 (p<0.001), and OR=2.99 (p<0.001), respectively. Conclusions: There seem to be higher prevalence of self-report symptoms of ear-related problems among individuals with confirmed COVID-19 infection compared to a non-COVID-19 group during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: Many aspects and features of auditory system can be improved by musical training. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a stringed musical instrument playing course on temporal resolution and temporal fine structure (TFS) processing. Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 44 normal-hearing adults aged 20-40 years divided to two groups. The first group included 22 stringed musical instruments players (13 males) with at least three years of experience, and the second group were 22 non-players (13 males). The random gap detection test (RGDT) was used to measure temporal resolution aspect of hearing. For TFS processing, latest version of temporal fine structure-adaptive frequency (TFS-AF) test was used. Results: The TFS-AF results showed no statistically significant difference between groups in different interaural phase differences (IPDs). The RGDT results showed significant differences between groups at 500, 1000 and 2000 Hz, but not at 4000 Hz. Spearman correlation test results showed no statistically significant correlation between the results of TFS-AF and RGDT. Conclusion: Musical training has no effect on TFS processing but considerably enhances gap detection ability. Their underlying mechanisms for TFS processing and gap detection are different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Everyday communication mostly occurs in the presence of various background noises and competing talkers. Studies have shown that musical training could have a positive effect on auditory processing, particularly in challenging listening situations. To our knowledge, no groups have specifically studied the advantage of musical training on perception of consonants in the presence of background noise. We hypothesized that musician advantage in speech in noise processing may also result in enhanced perception of speech units such as consonants in noise. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the recognition of stops and fricatives, which constitute the highest number of Persian consonants, in the presence of 12-talker babble noise between musicians and non-musicians. For this purpose, stops and fricatives presented in the consonant-vowel-consonant format and embedded in three signal-to-noise ratios of 0, −5, and −10 dB. The study was conducted on 40 young listeners (20 musicians and 20 non-musicians) with normal hearing. Our outcome indicated that musicians outperformed the non-musicians in recognition of stops and fricatives in all three signal-to-noise ratios. These findings provide important evidence about the impact of musical instruction on processing of consonants and highlight the role of musical training on perceptual abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: It is well known that hearing aid fitting is an effective approach to improve the communication ability of hearingimpaired people. In the past, most of the hearing aids were fitted unilaterally rather than bilaterally. Whereas the unilateral hearing aid fitting improves verbal communication partially, it causes late-onset auditory deprivation. The main aim of this study is to investigate the ANL for each ear among the users with unilateral hearing aid experience. Methods: A total of 23 participants were recruited (14 females, 9 males). The mean age was 74.65 years (ranged from 41 to 83). All subjects had bilateral symmetric sensorineural hearing loss. The most comfortable level (MCL), Background Noise Level (BNL), and acceptable noise level (ANL) were measured for ear with amplification experience and ear without experience. Results: MCL, BNL and ANL in the aided ear was 82.22, 73.48 and 8.74 respectively, in addition in the unaided ear the results for MCL, BNL and ANL was 81.78, 72.13 and 9.65 respectively. Comparing the mean values of MCL, BNL and ANL between two ears showed no significant difference. Conclusion: There was not any difference for BNL and ANL measures [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]