1,721,029 research outputs found
Investigation of Electrophysiological Patterns and Multiple Treatments in Tinnitus
No full textTinnitus is the most common auditory desorder, it is defined as a sound sensation in the absence of any external sound source. Sleep disturbances and depression are symptoms very often present in tinnitus patients. Starting from this observation, in the present thesis two electrophysiological approaches to tinnitus study are described: the former concerns sleep architecture pattern investigation in tinnitus patients, and the second concerns an index of serotonin activity in the auditory cortex the intensity dependence of auditory evoked potential (IDAP). Beyond electrophysiological studies we also investigated two tinnitus therapies,we focused on the study of the Mozart effect and of the mindfulness based stress reduction therapy, because sound therapy and treatments aiming at increasing patient's strategies to face tinnitus are among the most common tinnitus therapies
The influence of different cochlear implant features use on the mental workload index during a word in noise recognition task.
No full textLack of control enhances accurate and inaccurate identification responses to degraded visual objects
No full textRecent studies have shown that lack of control induces illusory pattern perception. In this study, we demonstrate that lacking control also affected identification responses to degraded pictures of visual objects. As compared with control participants, participants in whom lack of control was experimentally induced produced identification responses to visual objects at a significantly higher level of degradation of the stimulus. Lacking control did not influence accuracy of identification, since the effect was present for both correct and incorrect identification responses, and did not encourage pure random guessing. Our results indicate that lacking control makes individuals more prone to achieve visual closure by attempting earlier identifications of perceptually degraded visual objects. Possible mechanisms involved in this effect are discussed
An electrophysiological approach to tinnitus interpretation
No full textIntroduction: Serotonin seems to play a central role in tinnitus. The intensity dependence of auditory evoked potential (IDAP) is considered an index of central serotonergic activity in the auditory cortex. The higher the steepness of the N1/P2 component amplitude-stimulus function slope (N1/P2 ASF slope as calculated by IDAP), the lower the central serotonergic activity. Similarly, the N1 amplitude-stimulus function slope (N1 ASF slope) was investigated. Auditory brainstem responses (ABR) examine the auditory system functionality from the periphery and through the brainstem, where serotonergic projections have been identified. Objectives: Assessing whether tinnitus perception neurotransmitters activity inbalance could be investigated by an electrophysiological approach. Materials and Methods: Ten normoacousic tinnitus patients and 14 healthy controls were included in the study. Subjects underwent EEG (IDAP) recording, ABR recording and psychometric questionnaires administration. Results: N1/P2 ASF slope and N1ASF slope tended to have a greater steepness in patients. N1ASF slope was significantly correlated with ABR wave V and interpeak III-V latencies in patients. ABR wave V and interpeak III-V latencies were significantly longer in patients than in controls. Conclusion: N1/P2 ASF slope, N1 ASF slope and ABR components appear to be useful electrophysiologic methods to study possible functional alterations related to the serotonergic activity
School wellbeing and psychological characteristics of online learning in families of children with and without hearing loss during the Covid‐19 pandemic
Full text linkThis study investigated the psychological characteristics of online learning on Italian students with and without hearing loss (HL) and on their parents, who were forced into isolation during the Covid‐19 pandemic. An online survey collected information on socio‐demographic data and opinions concerning online learning from 61 children (mean age 11; 25 males, 36 females), including 43 with HL and also from their parents; additionally, school wellbeing and anxiety were assessed. The results showed that, in both the student and parent groups, no significant effect of HL on school wellbeing and anxiety was found. Additionally, in parents, State Anxiety was significantly higher than Trait Anxiety, suggesting one possible impact of lockdown on psychological wellbeing. Differences due to HL were observed and discussed in correlation analyses. The Authors believe that this study is the first contribution to the psychological evaluation of the impact of online learning on families with hearing‐impaired children, from the perspective of a successful, inclusive didactic
Reduced social interaction, behavioural flexibility and BDNF signalling in the BTBR T+tf/J strain, a mouse model of autism.
No full textGender and Age Related Effects While Watching TV Advertisements: An EEG Study
Full text linkThe aim of the present paper is to show how the variation of the EEG frontal cortical asymmetry is related to the general appreciation perceived during the observation of TV advertisements, in particular considering the influence of the gender and age on it. In particular, we investigated the influence of the gender on the perception of a car advertisement (Experiment 1) and the influence of the factor age on a chewing gum commercial (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 results showed statistically significant higher approach values for the men group throughout the commercial. Results from Experiment 2 showed significant lower values by older adults for the spot, containing scenes not very enjoyed by them. In both studies, there was no statistical significant difference in the scene
relative to the product offering between the experimental populations, suggesting the absence in our study of a bias towards the specific product in the evaluated populations. These evidences state the importance of the creativity in advertising, in order to attract the target population
Sleep Architecture Variation in Chronic Tinnitus Patients
No full textObjectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the sleep architecture and its possible alterations in chronic tinnitus patients, and investigate any possible correlation between sleep architecture modifications and tinnitus perception, adaptation, and the degree of discomfort in these patients. Design: In a prospective, case-control, nonrandomized study, 18 patients affected by chronic tinnitus were compared with a homogeneous control group consisting of 15 healthy subjects. The experimental group was enrolled at the Tinnitus ambulatory at Policlinico Umberto I Department of Sensory Organs, and the control group was composed of voluntary subjects. A full overnight polysomnography was performed on both groups. Tinnitus patients answered two questionnaires: the tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) and a questionnaire concerning their subjective sleep quality, tinnitus intensity before bedtime, tinnitus intensity at remembered nocturnal wake-up periods, and tinnitus intensity at morning wake-up. Controls completed only the sleep quality questionnaire. Results: All tinnitus patients had a statistically significant alteration in sleep stages. Average percentage of stage 1 + stage 2 was 85.4% +/- 6.3, whereas, in the control group, the average percentage of stage 1 + stage 2 was 54.9 +/- 11.2 (p < 0.001). Stages 3 and 4 and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep was lacking in all tinnitus patients with an average percentage of 6.4 +/- 4.9 of REM sleep, and 6.4 +/- 4.9 of stages 3 + 4. The control group showed an average percentage of 21.5 +/- 3.6 of REM sleep and 21.5 +/- 3.6 of stages 3 + 4 (p < 0.001). No correlation was found between the decrease of REM and the increase of the THI score in the tinnitus group (r = 0.04). However, a mild correlation was found between the increase of light sleep (stage 1 + stage 2) and the THI score reported by the tinnitus group. Therefore, patients with light sleep report a higher THI score (r = 0.4). Conclusions: The significant alteration of sleep parameters assessed in tinnitus patients underlines the necessity to consider an adequate therapy that could improve patients' sleep quality and also opens avenues for further investigations
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
- …
