Hearing impairment
hideA hearing impairment or deafness is a full or partial decrease in the ability to detect or understand sounds. Caused by a wide range of biological and environmental factors, loss of hearing can happen to any organism that perceives sound. "Hearing impaired" is often used to refer to those who are deaf, although the term is viewed negatively by members of Deaf culture, who prefer the terms "Deaf" and "Hard of Hearing".
Sound waves vary in amplitude and in frequency. Amplitude is the sound wave's peak pressure variation. Frequency is the number of cycles per second of a sinusoidal component of a sound wave. Loss of the ability to detect some frequencies, or to detect low-amplitude sounds that an organism naturally detects, is a hearing impairment.
For more information about Hearing impairment, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with hearing
Got ear plugs? You may want to sport them on the subway and other mass transit
Jun 19, 2009 |
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The U.S. mass transit system, the largest in the world, provides affordable and efficient transportation to more than 33 million riders each weekday. The system is generally considered one of the safest modes of travel. But ...
Ion channel turns ear on its head
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Apr 23, 2009 |
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Scientists thought they had a good model to explain how the inner ear translates vibrations in the air into sounds heard by the brain. Now, based on new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine, it looks like ...
Now hear this: Mouse study sheds light on hearing loss in older adults
Nov 09, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Becoming "hard of hearing" is a standard but unfortunate part of aging: A syndrome called age-related hearing loss affects about 40 percent of people over 65 in the United States, and will afflict an estimated ...
Squeak, squeak -- can you hear me now?
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Nov 09, 2009 |
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What do you get when you cross a mouse with poor hearing and a mouse with even worse hearing? Ironically, a new strain of mice with "golden ears" - mice that have outstanding hearing as they age.
Gene discovery reveals a critical protein's function in hearing
Aug 21, 2009 |
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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 led by University of Iowa researchers. The findings, which ...
Age-related difficulty recognizing words predicted by brain differences
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
May 12, 2009 |
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Older adults may have difficulty understanding speech because of age-related changes in brain tissue, according to new research in the May 13 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The study shows that older adults with t ...
Diminuendo -- New mouse model for understanding cause of progressive hearing loss
Apr 27, 2009 |
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The respective microRNA seed region influences the production of sensory hair cells in the inner ear, both in the mouse and in humans. The findings have been published ahead of print in the current online issue of Nature Ge ...
Scaling the wall of deafness
Apr 14, 2009 |
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Despite modern medicine, one in 1,000 American babies are born deaf. The numbers increase markedly with age, with more than 50% of seniors in the United States experiencing some form of hearing loss.
New insights into progressive hearing loss
Apr 12, 2009 |
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In parallel studies in human and mouse, two groups of researchers have come to the same conclusion: that a new kind of gene is associated with progressive hearing loss. The new gene - called a microRNA - is a tiny fragment ...
New stem cell therapy may lead to treatment for deafness
Mar 23, 2009 |
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Deafness affects more than 250 million people worldwide. It typically involves the loss of sensory receptors, called hair cells, for their "tufts" of hair-like protrusions, and their associated neurons. The transplantation ...
Study offers clues to beating hearing loss
Mar 04, 2009 |
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Researchers at the University of Leeds have made a significant step forward in understanding the causes of some forms of deafness.
Vitamin supplements may protect against noise-induced hearing loss
Feb 17, 2009 |
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Vitamin supplements can prevent hearing loss in laboratory animals, according to two new studies, bringing investigators one step closer to the development of a pill that could stave off noise-induced and perhaps even age-related ...
Surviving dance club music (noise) with hearing intact
Biology /
Jan 21, 2009 |
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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 ...
Virtual ears and the cocktail party effect
Nov 17, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Oxford University research has helped understanding of the so-called ‘cocktail party effect’ – how our brains develop the ability to pinpoint and focus on particular sounds among a background ...
New mouse mutant contains clue to progressive hearing loss
Biology /
Oct 31, 2008 |
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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 ...
