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Abstract Background In a previous study, severe and cerebral malaria have been connected with acute cochlear malfunction in children, demonstrated by a decrease of transitory evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) reproducibility. This study aims to determine whether cochlear malfunction persists for 4 years after recovery from severe malaria in a subset of the previous study’s collective. Follow-up TEOAEs were performed on site (CERMEL, Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, Lambaréné, Gabon) or at the participants’ homes; 33 out of 90 participants included in the initial investigation by Schmutzhard et al. could be retrieved and were re-examined, 31/33 could be included. Of the 57 missing participants, 51 could not be contacted, 1 had moved away, 4 refused to cooperate, and 1 had died. Methods As in the initial investigation, participants of this prospective follow-up study were subjected to TEOAE examination on both ears separately. A wave correlation rate of > 60% on both ears was considered a “pass”; if one ear failed to pass, the examination was considered a “fail”. The results were compared to the primary control group. Additionally, a questionnaire has been applied focusing on subsequent malaria infections between the primary inclusion and follow-up and subjective impairment of hearing and/or understanding. Results The cohort’s mean age was 9 years, 14 children were female, 18 male. 31 had been originally admitted with severe, one with cerebral malaria. 83.8% of participants (n = 26) presented with a TEOAE correlation rate of > 60% on both ears (the cut-off for good cochlear function); in the control group, 92.2% (n = 83) had passed TEOAE examination on both ears. Recurrent severe malaria was associated with a worse TEOAE correlation rate. Age at infection and gender had no influence on the outcome. Conclusions Cochlear malfunction seems to be persistent after 4 years in more than 16% of children hospitalized for malaria. In a healthy control group, this proportion was 7.8%. Yet, the severity of the initial TEOAE-decrease did not predict a worse outcome.

The present study investigates whether meaning is similarly extracted from spoken and sung sentences. For this purpose, subjects listened to semantically correct and incorrect sentences while performing a correctness judgement task. In order to examine underlying neural mechanisms, a multi-methodological approach was chosen combining two neuroscientific methods with behavioral data. In particular, fast dynamic changes reflected in the semantically associated N400 component of the electroencephalography (EEG) were simultaneously assessed with the topographically more fine-grained vascular signals acquired by the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). EEG results revealed a larger N400 for incorrect compared to correct sentences in both spoken and sung sentences. However, the N400 was delayed for sung sentences, potentially due to the longer sentence duration. fNIRS results revealed larger activations for spoken compared to sung sentences irrespective of semantic correctness at predominantly left-hemispheric areas, potentially suggesting a greater familiarity with spoken material. Furthermore, the fNIRS revealed a widespread activation for correct compared to incorrect sentences irrespective of modality, potentially indicating a successful processing of sentence meaning. The combined results indicate similar semantic processing in speech and song.

Recent findings show the importance of acceptance in the treatment of chronic tinnitus. So far, very limited research investigating the different levels of tinnitus acceptance has been conducted. The aim of this study was to investigate the quality of life (QoL) and psychological distress in patients with chronic tinnitus who reported different levels of tinnitus acceptance. The sample consisted of outpatients taking part in a tinnitus coping group (n = 97). Correlations between tinnitus acceptance, psychological distress, and QoL were calculated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to calculate a cutoff score for the German "Tinnitus Acceptance Questionnaire" (CTAQ-G) and to evaluate the screening abilities of the CTAQ-G. Independent sample t-tests were conducted to compare QoL and psychological distress in patients with low tinnitus acceptance and high tinnitus acceptance. A cutoff point for CTAQ-G of 62.5 was defined, differentiating between patients with "low-to-mild tinnitus acceptance" and "moderate-to-high tinnitus acceptance." Patients with higher levels of tinnitus acceptance reported a significantly higher QoL and lower psychological distress. Tinnitus acceptance plays an important role for patients with chronic tinnitus. Increased levels of acceptance are related to better QoL and less psychological distress.

Localisation of low- and high-frequency sounds in single-sided deaf cochlear implant users was investigated using noise stimuli designed to mitigate monaural localisation cues. Within subject design. Sound source localisation was tested in the horizontal plane using an array of seven loudspeakers along the azimuthal angle span from −90° to +90°. Stimuli were broadband noise and high- and low-frequency noise. Twelve adult subjects with single-sided deafness participated in the study. All had normal hearing in the healthy ear and were supplied with a cochlear implant (CI) in their deaf ear. With broadband noise, the mean angular localisation error was 39° in aided condition as compared to a median angular error of 83.6° when the speech processor was not worn. For high-frequency noise, the median angular error was 30° and for low-frequency noise, it was 46° in the CI-aided condition. Single-sided deaf CI users show the best sound localisation for high-frequency sounds. This supports the view that interaural level differences are dominant for sound localisation in these listeners. Nonetheless, a limited ability to localise low-frequency sounds was observed, which may be based on the supportive perception of interaural time differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: In recreational skiing and snowboarding, listening to music may be associated with an increased injury risk due to impaired sound localization. Thus, we evaluated effects of listening to music at different sound levels on sound source localization while wearing a ski helmet.Design: within-subjects design.Method: Sound source localization of 20 participants (50% females; age: 23.8±2.4years) was assessed in an anechoic chamber under six conditions: (1) head bare, (2) wearing a ski helmet, (3) wearing a ski helmet and insert ear phones, and (4-6) the latter and listening to music at 3 different sound levels of 45, 55, and 65dB sound pressure level (SPL), respectively.Results: One-way repeated measures ANOVA show that the percentage of correct sound localization was significantly affected by various conditions: F (5, 95)=138.2, p<.001 (ƞ2=0.88). Compared to the situation "head bare" with a correct score of 88%, increasing music sound levels of 45, 55 and 65dB SPL significantly decreased the ability to correctly localize the sound source to 54%, 45% and 37% correct scores, respectively. Also, angular errors [F (5, 95)=31.0, p<.001, ƞ2=0.62] and front rear confusion [F (2.8, 53.4)=57.9, p<.001, ƞ2=0.75] were significantly affected by wearing a ski helmet and listening to music simultaneously.Conclusions: Listening to music while wearing a ski helmet impacts negatively on sound source localization. The extent of worsening strongly depends on the sound level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]