Translational Perspectives in Auditory Neuroscience. Hearing across the Lifespan - Assessment and Disorders

Description

Virtually anything related to hearing that has a scientific basis could be included in a book so labeled, but this book is part of a mission to improve dialogue between basic and applied scientists so that health-related science can translate in many directions: from bench to bedside and vice versa. The editors are clinical audiologists as well as classically-trained hearing scientists, who, are committed to the advancement of ‘translational research.’ To do this, colleagues who work along each step of the scientific continuum, from basic to applied, provided information that was theoretically deep, but contextually broad. In some instances this meant pairing authors (clinicians and scientists) who would not normally write together and asking them to co-author chapters. A diverse group of students, post-docs, and scientists also interacted with the authors by asking questions and infusing comments during the review process. This process ensured both basic and applied material would be integrated. One example is the final chapter in the third book in the series on Auditory Plasticity and Auditory Training. Rather than simply review evidence of experience-related physiological changes documented in animal models, the authors chose to address the functional significance of “auditory plasticity” as it pertains to “auditory learning.” By simply revisiting the concepts of ‘plasticity’ in relation to ‘learning’ there has been a resurgence of interest in the area as it pertains to auditory rehabilitation. The challenge was to present the literature in a way that allowed us to ask the tough questions like, “Does a statistically-significant change in perception (or biology) necessarily constitute a functionally relevant change in behavior?” More importantly, “do the observed changes impact a person’s ability to communicate? And does it impact their quality of life?”

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Contributors
Chapter

Section I –Life Span and Disordered Hearing
1. Hearing Loss: Conductive and Sensorineural by Mark Chertoff and Dana Jacobson
2. Maturation of the Auditory System by Lori Leibold and Lynne Werner
3. The Aging Auditory System by Curtis Billings, Kelly Tremblay, and James Willott.

Section II –Physiological Assessment of Audition
4. Physiological Mechanisms Assessed by Aural Acoustic Transfer Functions by M.Patrick Feeney and Douglas H. Keefe
5. Otoacoustic Emissions: Mechanisms and Applications by Chris Shera and Carolina Abdala
6. Physiological Mechanisms Underlying the Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) by Robert Burkard and Manuel Don
7. Physiological Mechanisms Underlying Auditory Steady State Responses (ASSR) by Susan Small and Andrew Dimitrijevic
8. Physiological Mechanisms Underlying Middle Latency Responses and Cortical Evoked Potentials by Hillel Pratt and Guy Lightfoot
9. Fundamental principles underlying Magnetic Resonance Imaging by Deborah A. Hall and Dominik C. Wild.

About the Authors

Kelly Tremblay, PhD

Kelly L. Tremblay is a Professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, and an Affiliate of the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center at the University of Washington..