Objectives: This article provides an overview of the causes and differential diagnosis of sudden deafness (SD) and sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL).
Design: Contemporary review.
Study sample: ...This review is based on peer-reviewed articles published in those journals listed on journal of citation reports. Through the PubMed database of the US National Library of Medicine, Scopus, and Google Scholar using the keywords of "sudden deafness", "acute hearing loss", and "sudden sensorineural hearing loss", totally 1493 papers were considered and 166 relevant papers were selected.
Results: Sensorineural hearing loss of sudden onset may be classified as primary SD and secondary SSHL. Proposed aetiologies of primary SD comprised viral infection, vascular insufficiency, autoimmune disorder and stress theory, while causes of secondary SSHL include neoplasm, stroke and irradiation.
Conclusion: SD/SSHL is a syndrome that comprises various entities, and results from a variety of aetiologies. An inner ear test battery in SD/SSHL patients helps determine its aetiology, and provides comprehensive information on the affected territory. Identification of the cause and differential diagnosis of the different types of SD/SSHL may provide substantial benefits such as determining the prognosis, identifying associated risk factors and preventing further hearing loss.
Auditory processing disorder, defined here as a deficit in the way sounds are analyzed by the brain, has remained a controversial topic within audiology for decades. Some of the controversy concerns ...what it is called. More substantively, even its existence has been questioned. That view has likely emerged because there has not been sufficient rigor in determining when difficulty in understanding speech has been the consequence of some type of auditory processing deficit, versus when it is the consequence of a cognitive deficit or a language deficit. This article suggests that the field use the term "listening difficulty" as an umbrella term to indicate a reported deficit in recognizing sounds or understanding speech, one possible cause of which is an auditory processing disorder. Other possible causes are hearing deficits, cognitive deficits, and language deficits. This article uses a plausible, and hopefully noncontroversial, model of speech understanding that comprises auditory processing, speech processing, and language processing, all potentially affected by the degree of attention applied and the listener's memory ability. In a fresh approach to the construction of test batteries, the stages of the model are linked to tests designed to assess either all or selected parts of the processes involved. For two of the stages, a listener's performance is quantified as the additional signal to noise ratio that he or she needs to function equivalently to his or her age peers. Subtraction of the deficits revealed by each test enables the contributions of each processing stage to a listening deficit to be quantified. As a further novel contribution, the impact of memory and attention on each test score is quantitatively allowed for, by an amount that depends on each test's dependence on memory and attention. Attention displayed during the test is estimated from the fluctuations in performance during the test. The article concludes with a summary of the research that must be conducted before the structured tests can be used to quantify the extent to which different potential causes of listening difficulties are responsible for real-life difficulties in an individual child.
Current definitions of creativity almost universally include value or a close cognate as one of the criteria. This article discusses two problems that arise as the result of the inclusion of value in ...those definitions. First, there is a conflict between the researchers' definition of the relevant phenomena and that used in the ordinary language, as well as a conflict between the ordinary understanding of the relevant concepts and the way they are used by researchers. Such conflicts may result in research being ignored or rejected by other researchers and policy makers. Second, the value attributed to some product is the result of a subjective judgment, which is subject to change over generations. Such changes have the consequence of making it impossible to develop a cumulative knowledge base in the study of creativity. In response to those problems, an alternative definition of creative, based on the criteria of intentional novelty, and not including value in any form, is discussed. In addition, positive reasons for adopting that definition are presented.
•Chemical analyses may be not sufficient to assess risk of organic wastes.•A bioassay test battery is proposed to complement chemical analyses.•Chemical analyses complemented with bioassays support ...ERA of wastes.•Chemical and biological data provide information on sources of waste toxicity.
Using organic wastes, as soil amendments, is an important alternative to landfilling with benefits to soil structure, water retention, soil nutrient and organic matter concentrations. However, this practice should be monitored for its environmental risk due to the frequent presence, of noxious substances to soil organisms. To evaluate the potential of eight organic wastes with different origins, as soil amendments, reproduction tests with four soil invertebrate species (Folsomia candida, Enchytraeus crypticus, Hypoaspis aculeifer, Eisenia fetida) were performed using gradients of soil–waste mixtures.
Results obtained demonstrated that contaminant concentrations required by current legislation might not be a protective measure for the soil ecosystem, as they do not properly translate the potential toxicity of wastes to soil invertebrates. Some wastes with contaminant loadings below thresholds showed higher toxicity than wastes with contaminants concentrations above legal limits. Also, test organism reproduction was differently sensitive to the selected wastes, which highlights the need to account for different organism sensitivities and routes of exposure when evaluating the toxicity of such complex mixtures. Finally this study shows that when combining chemical and ecotoxicological data, it is possible to postulate on potential sources of toxicity, contributing to better waste management practices and safer soil organic amendment products.
The introduction of an updated test battery, covering tests accessible for all age groups and with duration of one training session is needed for the execution of effective control on the growing up ...basketball players. The purpose of the study was to create an updated test battery for basketball players (boys and girls) of U12, U14, and U16, including three groups of indicators: for physical development, physical preparedness, and technical skills. Three hundred and ten children from the clubs in the country (137 boys and 173 girls) participated in the sport-pedagogical tests. We applied a new test battery, covering 21 indicators, divided into three groups: for physical development, physical preparedness, and technical skills. The results were processed with a variation analysis and comparative analysis by the t-criterion of Student. The results showed statistically important differences for both sexes between U12 and U14 for the physical development and physical preparedness signs and for some tests in relation to the technical preparedness. An important difference was observed between U14 and U16 from both sexes for some of the sings only; as far as the technical skills were concerned, the differences for the boys were due to occasional reasons; for the U16 girls, they were considerably better than the U14 girls. The new test battery objectively reflects the real status of the level of all U12, U14, and U16 competitors. Normative tables will be developed to help the work of the coaches in relation to the optimization of the school-training process.
Objective: Major obstacles to data harmonization in neuropsychology include lack of consensus about what constructs and tests are most important and invariant across healthy and clinical populations. ...This study addressed these challenges using data from the National Neuropsychology Network (NNN). Method: Data were obtained from 5,000 NNN participants and Pearson standardization samples. Analyses included variables from four instruments: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 4th Edition (WAIS-IV); Wechsler Memory Scale, 4th Edition (WMS-IV); California Verbal Learning Test, 3rd Edition (CVLT3); and Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS). We used confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate models suggested by prior work and examined fit statistics and measurement invariance across samples. We examined relations of factor scores to demographic and clinical characteristics. Results: For each instrument, we identified four first-order and one second-order factor. Optimal models in patients generally paralleled the best-fitting models in the standardization samples, including task-specific factors. Analysis of the NNN data prompted specification of a Recognition-Familiarity factor on the WMS-IV and an Inhibition-Switching factor on the D-KEFS. Analyses showed strong to strict factorial invariance across samples with expected differences in factor means and variances. The Recognition-Familiarity factor correlated with age more strongly in NNN than in the standardization sample. Conclusions: Factor models derived from healthy groups generally fit well in patients. NNN data helped identify novel Recognition-Familiarity and Inhibition-Switching factors that were also invariant across samples and may be clinically useful. The findings support efforts to identify evidence-based and optimally efficient measurements of neuropsychological constructs that are valid across groups.
Key Points
Question: This article asks what neuropsychological constructs are identified by a clinical test battery (comprising 17 tests from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 4th Edition WAIS-IV, Wechsler Memory Scale, 4th Edition WMS-IV, California Verbal Learning Test, 3rd Edition CVLT3, and Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System D-KEFS), if patterns seen in patients and healthy people are the same, and what specific variables are most important to define each construct. Findings: Models in a heterogeneous clinical sample and the standardization sample are very similar, but models including Recognition-Familiarity and Inhibition-Switching factors were prompted by analyses in the National Neuropsychology Network (NNN) patient sample, and these factors may be clinically relevant. Importance: The findings are important because they provide a basis for development of better and more efficient assessment strategies, particularly when seeking to measure specific cognitive constructs in neuropsychological evaluations. Next Steps: Next steps include examining factors across instruments, specifying the most efficient adaptive methods to measure these constructs, and determining what specific individual and cultural differences, and what clinical conditions, may deviate from these construct definitions, and/or demand development of additional novel strategies.
For the past two decades, behavioural ecologists have documented consistent individual differences in behavioural traits within species and found evidence for animal “personality”. It is only ...relatively recently, however, that increasing numbers of researchers have begun to investigate individual differences in cognitive ability within species. It has been suggested that cognitive test batteries may provide an ideal tool for this growing research endeavour. In fact, cognitive test batteries have now been used to examine the causes, consequences and underlying structure of cognitive performance within and between many species. In this review, we document the existing attempts to develop cognitive test batteries for non-human animals and review the claims that these studies have made in terms of the structure and evolution of cognition. We argue that our current test battery methods could be improved on multiple fronts, from the design of tasks, to the domains targeted and the species tested. Refining and optimising test battery design will provide many benefits. In future, we envisage that well-designed cognitive test batteries may provide answers to a range of exciting questions, including giving us greater insight into the evolution and structure of cognition.
The article presents a new computerized adaptive testing (CAT) procedure for use with batteries of unidimensional tests. At each step of testing, the estimate of a certain ability is updated on the ...basis of the response to the latest administered item and the current estimates of all other abilities measured by the battery. The information deriving from these abilities is incorporated into an empirical prior that is updated each time that new estimates of the abilities are computed. In two simulation studies, the performance of the proposed procedure is compared with that of a standard procedure for CAT with batteries of unidimensional tests. The proposed procedure yields more accurate ability estimates in fixed-length CATs, and a reduction of test length in variable-length CATs. These gains in accuracy and efficiency increase with the correlation between the abilities measured by the batteries.
Due to demographic changes, the number of people suffering not only from dementia illness but also from hearing impairment with the need for hearing rehabilitation have increased noticeably. Even ...with the association between hearing, age, and cognitive decline being well known, this issue has so far not played an important role in daily clinical Ear Nose Throat settings. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the use of a computer-based battery of tests of neurocognitive abilities in older patients with and without hearing loss.
A total of 120 patients aged 50 years and older were enrolled in this prospective clinical study: 40 patients suffered from severe bilateral hearing loss and were tested before cochlear implantation and 80 patients showed normal hearing thresholds between 500 and 4,000 Hz bilaterally. The test battery covered a wide range of cognitive abilities such as long- and short-term memory, working memory (WM), attention, inhibition, and other executive functions. Individuals with severe depression or cognitive impairment were excluded.
Hearing status was a significant predictor of performance on delayed recall (
=0.0082) and verbal fluency after adjusting for age (
=0.0016). Age predominantly impacted on inhibition (
=0.0039) and processing speed (
<0.0001), whereas WM measured by the Operation Span task (OSPAN) and the attention were influenced by both age and hearing. The battery of tests was feasible and practical for testing older patients without prior computer skills.
A computerized neurocognitive assessment battery may be a suitable tool for the elderly in clinical practice. While it cannot replace a thorough neuropsychological examination, it may help to draw the line between cognitive and hearing impairment in the elderly and enable the development of individual strategies for hearing rehabilitation.
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