New insight on hearing development in children

A new study from Oregon University of Health and Science is the first to suggest that merging the stadium with both ears-a process that includes integrating different stadiums from each ear into one voice-one type of central hearing treatment that may still develop in pre-adolescence children and can provide an opportunity For treatment.

The study was published last week in Journal of the Research Association in ENC.

The integration of the ears stadium is related to the “cocktail effect”, or the brain’s ability to focus the individual’s attention and listen to one person who speaks while filtering other sounds in the room. Individuals who are clinically known as “broad ears fusion” are unable to effectively separate these multiple sounds, which may limit their ability to understand speech in loud environments.

With a better understanding of how this ability to develop children, doctors may be able to develop more effective and practical interventions of the widespread ears in children with hearing loss and hearing treatment disorders.

“What was very surprising is that we found that even children with typical hearing have an abnormal wide integration, just like adults who suffer from hearing loss, then over time their merger became more clear and more mature,” said Lina Reese, the author of the study, said. .D. , Professor of Anthropology/head and neck surgery at the OHSU College.

“This refers to an expanded timetable for hearing development in children, which has exciting scientific and traces. We hope this will contribute to more effective interventions to support the development of speech in the vision of noise in children.”

Understanding hearing, improving results

The researchers measured and compared the changes in the fusion in the ears stadium between children between ages and developmental stages. After long -term follow -up, they then compared the results of children with normal hearing with those with hearing loss, as well as for those who have different groups of hearing devices, such as cochlear transplantation.

The study found that even children with typical hearing will have more difficulties in visualizing the noise due to the development of unprecedented ears fusion. The results showed that the ears fusion greatly from 6 to 14 years, indicating that the ear ties are still ripe and are likely to be guided by the experience of hearing during childhood development.

Jennifer Fowler, an auxiliary professor of eye and neck surgery at the OHSU College and the co -author of the study, stressed that determining interventions to improve speech and noise recognition, even in children with a typical hearing, has proven to be important to development results, including Academic performance.

“We must think of interventions to create a quieter semester environments for learning, such as providing microphone systems in a larger semester, to ensure that children hear noise in the background and from a distance,” Fowler said. “Music training has proven an effective way to sharpen the ears, so exploring how to create a children’s musical intervention in a clinical model may be useful for patients.”

Researchers are looking forward, and researchers hope to determine ways to prevent the development of abnormal integration and reduce its effects with the new or targeted uses of hearing devices.

“If we are able to try to understand the biological structures that participate in the ears by looking closely at the brains of children during this development process, we will have a much better idea of ​​how to improve it,” said Reese.