GCHSR

Hearing and Deafness Research: Beyond Hearing Aids 

The Hearing and Deafness Research Group of the Otolaryngology Department at the University of Rochester Medical Center is at a critical juncture in responding to the needs of the deaf and aging population. Since 1991, the Department has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, as well as private benefactors, to conduct leading research in deafness and age-related hearing loss.

With significant finds in basic science as a result of these breakthrough investigations, faculty members and their collaborators are at the threshold of substantive advances in the translation of new understandings that can be applied to the prevention and treatment of hearing loss and deafness. Investment in progressive translational and clinical research will have a lasting impact on the field of Otolaryngology. 

"Hearing loss and deafness are physical deficits that go beyond lifestyle limitations," said Robert Frisina, Jr., Ph.D., Associate Chairman for Research. "The inability to hear imposes serious threats to a person's economic, social, and psychological well-being. Coupled with an aging population, the importance of research on age-related hearing loss becomes even more critical in the U.S. as we struggle to relieve our already over-burdened healthcare system."

Today, there are still no biomedical treatments for permanent hearing loss.

The strategy of the Hearing and Deafness Research Group of the Otolaryngology Department is to combine the knowledge and practices of multiple scientific disciplines to attack the highly prevalent and complex medical problems of deafness and presbycusis, age-related hearing loss. These scientific disciplines include Audiology, Psychoacoustics, Experimental Psychology, Neuro- physiology, Neuroanatomy, Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Gene Therapy. To advance and accelerate the translation of basic research in hearing loss and deafness to effective therapies, collaborations with other related disciplines are actively pursued.

 Exciting Results...to Date 

 Dr. Frisina's research fundamentally addresses the key ear-brain relations necessary to advance the science that underlies deafness and age-related hearing loss and thereby bring us closer to clinical application. Among the team's findings to date are key understandings of the changes that take place in the ear and brain: 

- For the feedback system from the brain to the ear, decline begins in middle age; 

- Sensory cells are lost in all cases of permanent hearing loss; 

- Some medical conditions, such as Type 2 diabetes accelerate hearing loss; 

- Progestin (HRT) use increases hearing loss in post-menopausal women; 

- Difficulty hearing speech in background noise begins at middle age.

Starting this summer, I will be conducting neuroengineering research as part of the biomedical engineering research team led by Dr. Robert Frisina, Jr. I will work on experiments investigating relations between hormones and auditory processing