Article
Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology
Nai Ding, Jiaxin Gao, Jing Wang, Wenhui Sun, Mingxuan Fang, Xiaoling Liu, Hua Zhao
Summary: Temporal modulations are crucial for speech recognition, but distortions caused by reverberations can decrease speech intelligibility. This study examines the recognition of speech contaminated by a single echo. Results show that young listeners are not affected by the echo, while older listeners experience a drop in recognition rate that recovers with exposure to more sentences. Age and hearing thresholds influence the recognition of echoic speech for older listeners, suggesting compensatory mechanisms in the auditory system.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Arpit Agarwal, Ayelet Sarel, Dori Derdikman, Nachum Ulanovsky, Yoram Gutfreund
Summary: This study used a wireless electrophysiology system to record single neurons in freely flying barn owls. They found neurons in the hippocampus and other regions that encoded spatial information about the owl's position, direction of flight, and perching location. These findings suggest commonalities in spatial coding between mammals and birds.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Biology
Simon Potier, Alexandre Roulin, Graham R. Martin, Steven J. Portugal, Vincent Bonhomme, Thierry Bouchet, Romuald de Romans, Eva Meyrier, Almut Kelber
Summary: The size and shape of the binocular field in birds, particularly owls, is strongly influenced by ecological traits such as foraging behavior and habitat. While the shape of the binocular field remains relatively conserved among owl species, the size varies depending on factors such as habitat density and diet.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Acoustics
Katharina Zenke, Stuart Rosen
Summary: This study examined the effect of non-individualized virtual environments on spatial release of masking (SRM) accuracy in adults and children. The results showed no significant difference in speech reception thresholds (SRTs) between environments for adults, but SRTs and SRMs improved with age in 7 to 12-year-old children, approaching adult levels. SRTs were slightly different between environments and significantly worse in a virtual environment based on HRTFs from a spherical head.
JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology
Christoph Kirsch, Josef Poppitz, Torben Wendt, Steven van de Par, Stephan D. Ewert
Summary: The study evaluated the minimum number of virtual sources required for rendering late reverberation in virtual acoustic environments and systematically reduced the spatial resolution of the virtual sound field.
Article
Neurosciences
Vanessa C. Irsik, Ala Almanaseer, Ingrid S. Johnsrude, Bjorn Herrmann
Summary: Older listeners have difficulty understanding speech in noise, possibly due to changes in sensitivity to speech-sound identity with age, which alters neural synchronization to envelope dynamics.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Yonghee Oh, Curtis L. Hartling, Nirmal Kumar Srinivasan, Anna C. Diedesch, Frederick J. Gallun, Lina A. J. Reiss
Summary: Voice-gender differences and spatial separation are important cues for auditory object segregation. This study investigates the relationship between voice-gender difference benefit and binaural pitch fusion, as well as the relationship between spatial separation benefit and localization acuity. The findings suggest that voice-gender differences improve auditory segregation and are related to the breadth of binaural pitch fusion.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology
Viacheslav Vasilkov, Markus Garrett, Manfred Mauermann, Sarah Verhulst
Summary: To improve the sensitivity and specificity of AEP markers for synaptopathy in sensorineural hearing loss, researchers optimized stimulus envelopes to generate strong envelope-following responses and minimize sensitivity to outer hair cell pathologies. By comparing model-predicted trends with actual AEP recordings, they identified optimal stimulation paradigms with specific characteristics for EFR-based quantification of synaptopathy. Older listeners with normal or impaired audiograms showed reduced EFRs, consistent with the effects of (age-induced) synaptopathy predicted by the model.
Article
Acoustics
Axel Ahrens, Kasper Duemose Lund
Summary: This study investigates how listeners analyze audio-visual scenes with varying complexity and finds that room reverberation and the number of talkers in a scene can influence the accuracy and response time of analyzing an auditory scene.
JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
Tanner Saussaman, Asif Nafi, David Charland, Hadar Ben-Gida, Roi Gurka
Summary: This study investigates the effects of leading-edge serrations on the flow dynamics over an owl wing model. The results show that the serrations modify the boundary layer differently at different angles of attack. At low angles, the serrations enhance turbulence activity, while at 20 degrees angle of attack, they suppress turbulence and reduce aerodynamic noise scattering.
BIOINSPIRATION & BIOMIMETICS
(2023)
Article
Immunology
Peifan Li, Tingting Qian, Shan Sun
Summary: The cochlea encodes sound stimuli and transmits them to the central nervous system. Damage to sensory cells and synapses in the cochlea leads to hearing loss. Recent studies have found the presence of resident macrophages in the cochlea, which are responsible for detecting and clearing cellular debris and pathogens. Insult to the cochlea can activate these macrophages to initiate immune responses. This review focuses on their distribution, functions, and potential therapeutic interventions for hearing loss.
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNOPHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Alexandra G. Liddane, James M. Holaska
Summary: It is commonly recognized in the field that cancer cells exhibit changes in the size and shape of their nuclei, which can impact cell migration and metastasis. Nuclear structural changes are predicted to regulate cancer cell migration across various tumor types, and alterations in nuclear lamina proteins, such as emerin, may play a significant role in cancer progression and clinical outcomes. Understanding the factors driving these nuclear abnormalities and their functional consequences remains an area of ongoing research in the field of cancer biology.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Review
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Dafei Li, Haiyan Zhao, Zhong-Kai Cui, Guangyong Tian
Summary: Nrf2, a major regulator of antioxidant capacity, plays a crucial role in hearing loss. Drugs can protect hearing through Nrf2.
FRONTIERS IN PHARMACOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Ruping Chen, Simone Buchmann, Amos Kroth, Anahi-Paula Arias-Loza, Michael Kohlhaas, Nicole Wagner, Gianna Gruener, Alexander Nickel, Alexandra Cirnu, Tatjana Williams, Christoph Maack, Sueleyman Erguen, Stefan Frantz, Brenda Gerull
Summary: This study discovered a new homozygous mutation (p.L13R) in the inner nuclear membrane protein LEMD2, which causes a form of arrhythmic cardiomyopathy characterized by endocardial fibrosis, left ventricular dilatation, and systolic dysfunction. The mutation impairs the repair capacity of nuclear envelope rupture, leading to increased DNA damage and premature senescence. This research identifies LEMD2 as a new player in laminopathies.
CIRCULATION RESEARCH
(2023)
Review
Plant Sciences
Jade Bishop, Hetty Swan, Francesco Valente, Hans-Wilhelm Nutzmann
Summary: Chromosomes in the eukaryotic nucleus are dynamic entities that can reorganize and reposition in response to cell development and environmental changes. In plants, the positioning of chromosome regions and genes at the nuclear envelope is associated with distinct transcriptional patterns.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2021)