Brain responses found to originate from previously unknown source
Scientists have made an important discovery about the human auditory system and how to study it, findings that could lead to better testing and diagnosis of hearing-related disorders. The researchers detected frequency-following responses (FFR) coming from a part of the brain not previously known to emit them. FFRs are neural signals generated in the brain when people hear sounds. Ref. Source 1j.
Gene therapy restores hearing in deaf mice, down to a whisper
In the summer of 2015, a team of scientists reported restoring rudimentary hearing in genetically deaf mice using gene therapy. Now the research team reports restoring a much higher level of hearing -- down to 25 decibels, the equivalent of a whisper -- using an improved gene therapy vector. Ref. Source 1y.
[..] I pray they can fix my ears. I spent 22 years in the Army around loud guns and big booms. Sometimes I was just in situations where I couldn't have hearing protection in because I needed to to hear in case the enemy was around and when the shooting started it was too late to put in ear plus. Now, I have tinnitus in a big way. I have a constant ringing in my ears that drives me nuts. Fixing that would be huge.
Human inner ear organs grown: Could lead to new therapies for hearing, balance impairments
Researchers have successfully developed a method to grow inner ear tissue from human stem cells, a finding that could lead to new platforms to model disease and new therapies for the treatment of hearing and balance disorders. Ref. Source 8h.
This is huge for me. As I said above, I have tinnitus from being around a big boom that happened to darn close to me. That I walked away with only some hearing loss is a miracle. But the ringing in my ears is constant. When I'm busy doing something I don't notice it but when I think about it, like now, it's very noticeable.
It will be good if you can have something from that but it will involve surgery by taking out the old and putting newly grown inner ear. If they are only doing it on mice now you might have another 6-10 years to wait before its approved.
Krusten,
True, but there hasn't been much progress with repairing my type of hearing loss, so any progress is good and thus is seems like a huge jump from where they once were. As far as yet he timing… I'm not planning on going anywhere *wink*.