Thursday | Friday | Saturday
Thursday Keynote Address
Rescue, Repair, and Regeneration in the Inner Ear
Thursday, November 18
9:30–11:30 am
Pennsylvania Convention Center
Room 201
Sharon G. Kujawa
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, MA
Douglas Cotanche
Children's Hospital, Boston, MA
Dianne Durham
University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS
This featured session addresses genetic and molecular mechanisms of rescue, repair, and regeneration in the ear. Researchers present findings on genetics of susceptibility to hearing loss, the potential of stem cell and gene therapy to prevent or treat hearing loss, and the consequences of hair cell regeneration on the Central Nervous System (CNS). Three leading researchers in the areas of genetic and molecular mechanisms of rescue, repair, and regeneration in the inner ear will present recent findings from their laboratories and clinics. Keynote speaker Dr. Sharon Kujawa will discuss the genetic contributions to acquired hearing loss susceptibility and her laboratory’s efforts to apply this information to developing targeted inner ear therapies to prevent or minimize hearing loss in humans. Dr. Douglas Cotanche will follow this presentation with a review of recent advances in stem cell biology and gene therapy which may make it possible to harness or direct the tissues of the inner ear to create a new type of "biological" cochlear implant in a damaged cochlea. The final presentation in this session, by Dr. Dianne Durham, will focus on how auditory neurons in the CNS respond to hair cell loss and regeneration.
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Friday Keynote Address
Current Issues in Amplification
Friday, November 19
9:30–11:30 am
Pennsylvania Convention Center
Room 201
Ruth Bentler
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Michael Valente
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
Patricia Kricos
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
The evolution and development of the auditory system in humans has been a topic of interest for centuries. Researchers tell us that the first amphibians to leave the Silurian Seas two to three hundreds million years ago relied upon the vibrations of the earth against their jawbones for hearing. Centuries later we have a pretty clear picture of the structure and function of the hair cells within the cochlea, and the auditory pathways beyond. The processing capabilities and limitations of the right (music, sequencing) and left (spoken words) hemispheres of the auditory cortex have been the focus of research in related fields. Now with the introduction of microcomputer technologies, directional microphone transducers, and real-time noise analysis and reduction, why is it we cannot compensate for disorders of the auditory system with greater efficiency and success than we do? What possible solutions are on the horizon? This presentation will address these issues offering data-based insights into the potentials and limitations of current amplification systems used to compensate for reduced hearing ability.
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Saturday Keynote Address
Diagnosis and Follow-up of Hearing Loss in Infants
Saturday, November 20
9:30–11:30 am
Pennsylvania Convention Center
Room 201
Barbara Cone-Wesson
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Judith Widen
University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS
Christine Yoshinaga-Itano
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
A change in neural and brain electrical activity can be evoked by sound, and these potentials are recorded from the eighth nerve, brainstem, and cortical levels of the auditory system. The sounds used to evoke brain activity can be clicks, tone-bursts, amplitude and frequency-modulated tones, complex sounds, and speech. These sounds can be presented acoustically or electrically. In both the clinical and research contexts, we pose the following questions: What is the significance of these potentials? How well do they predict hearing threshold? Can they be used to evaluate central auditory system processing? To indicate speech perception? To gauge brain development or even to provide a prognosis for speech and language development? Findings from the research laboratory and clinic will be used to illustrate answers to these questions.
With the advent of universal newborn hearing screening, new dilemmas arise. Diagnosis of hearing loss in newborns is accomplished by obtaining physiological thresholds acquired through auditory evoked potentials. Hearing aids are fit on these infants by using these physiological thresholds and developmentally appropriate prescriptive techniques. But physiological thresholds are not "hearing" thresholds, which will not be obtained for approximately 6 months after the initial diagnosis. What are some techniques to validate the hearing aid fitting through observation of behavioral responses in the infant stage? Can conditioned responses to auditory stimuli be obtained pre-linguistically in children with significant hearing loss? What is VRISD (visual response infant speech discrimination), CHT (conditioned head turn), and VH (visual habituation)? These questions as well as the shortcomings of auditory evoked potential techniques for assessing hearing abilities and the need for research will be highlighted.
Barbara Cone-Wesson will discuss the significance of auditory evoked potentials, including event-related potentials, in the assessment of infant hearing abilities. Judith Widen will present theoretical and practical aspects of operant conditioning audiometry, and Christine Yoshinaga-Itano will discuss the role of the interventionist given physiological and behavioral findings.
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