Mouse models of neurodegenerative disease: preclinical imaging and neurovascular component.

Neurodegenerative diseases represent great challenges for basic science and clinical medicine because of their prevalence, pathologies, lack of mechanism-based treatments, and impacts on individuals. Translational research might contribute to the study of neurodegenerative diseases. The mouse has become a key model for studying disease mechanisms that might recapitulate in part some aspects of the corresponding human diseases. Neurode- generative disorders are very complicated and multifacto- rial. This has to be taken in account when testing drugs. Most of the drugs screening in mice are very di cult to be interpretated and often useless. Mouse models could be condiderated a ‘pathway models’, rather than as models for the whole complicated construct that makes a human disease. Non-invasive in vivo imaging in mice has gained increasing interest in preclinical research in the last years thanks to the availability of high-resolution single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), high eld Magnetic resonance, Optical Imaging scanners and of highly speci c contrast agents. Behavioral test are useful tool to characterize di erent ani- mal models of neurodegenerative pathology. Furthermore, many authors have observed vascular pathological features associated to the di erent neurodegenerative disorders. Aim of this review is to focus on the di erent existing animal models of neurodegenerative disorders, describe behavioral tests and preclinical imaging techniques used for diagnose and describe the vascular pathological features associated to these diseases

Parents of children with hearing loss: Impact and exposure of COVID-19 on mental health.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact and exposure of COVID-19 on parent mental health (e.g., depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), for parents of children with hearing loss. The survey was distributed via an electronic survey to families subscribed to a pediatric program listserv as part of a university medical center. Fifty-five percent of parents reported elevated symptoms of anxiety, while 16% scored in the clinically significant range for depression. In addition, 20% of parents reported elevated symptoms of PTSD. Liner regressions found that impact of COVID-19 predicted anxiety symptoms, while both impact and exposure predicted depression and PTSD symptoms. In addition, both impact and exposure predicted COVID related parental distress. Exposure and impact of COVID-19 has had negative consequences on parents of children with hearing loss. Although exposure influenced parental mental health, impact uniquely affected depression and PTSD. Results highlight the need for mental health screening, as well implementation of psychological interventions using telehealth or in-person consultations. Future work should focus on post-pandemic challenges, including long-term psychological functioning due to the established relationship between parental mental health and pediatric outcomes

The Effects of Paired versus Sequential Stimulation on Speech Recognition Outcomes of Adult Cochlear Implant Recipients

Cochlear implant (CI) sound-processing strategies are important to the overall success of a CI recipient. This study aimed to determine the effects of 2 Advanced Bionics (AB) CI-processing strategies, Optima-S and Optima-P, on speech recognition outcomes in adult CI users. A retrospective chart review was completed at a tertiary academic medical center. Seventeen post-lingually deafened adult CI users (median age = 58.6 years; age range: 23.5-78.9 years) with long-term use of a paired sound-processing strategy (Optima-P) were reprogrammed with a sequential strategy (Optima-S). Demographic data and speech recognition scores with pre- and post-intervention analyses were collected and compared with respect to the 95% confidence interval for common CI word and sentence recognition tests. Using Optima-S sound-processing strategy, all patients (100%) performed equivalent or better on word and sentence testing than with Optima-P. More specifically, 17.6, 41.2, and 58.8% of the patients performed above the 95% confidence interval for speech recognition conditions of monosyllabic words, sentences in quiet, and sentences in noise, respectively. All patients (100%) selected Optima-S as their preferred strategy for future CI use. Speech recognition performance with Optima-S processing strategy was stable or improved compared to results with Optima-P in all tested conditions, and subjective preference of Optima-S was selected by all patients. Given these results, CI clinicians should consider programming AB CI users with Optima-S sound-processing strategy to optimize overall speech recognition performance

Effects of Bilateral Cochlear Implantation on Binaural Listening Tasks for Younger and Older Adults

This study investigated the objective and subjective benefit of a second cochlear implant (CI) on binaural listening tasks of speech understanding in noise and localization in younger and older adults. We aimed to determine if the aging population can utilize binaural cues and obtain comparable benefits from bilateral CI (BIL_CI) when compared to the younger population. Twenty-nine adults with severe to profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss were included. Participants were evaluated in two conditions, better CI (BE_CI) alone and BIL_CI using AzBio and Bamford-Kowal-Bench (BKB) sentence in noise tests. Localization tasks were completed in the BIL_CI condition using a broadband stimulus, low-frequency stimuli, and high-frequency stimuli. A subjective questionnaire was administered to assess satisfaction with CI. Older age was significantly associated with poorer performance on AzBio +5 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and BKB-speech in noise (SIN); however, improvements from BE_CI to BIL_CI were observed across all ages. In the AzBio +5 condition, nearly half of all participants achieved a significant improvement from BE_CI to BIL_CI with the majority of those occurring in patients younger than 65 years of age. Conversely, the majority of participants who achieved a significant improvement in BKB-SIN were adults >65 years of age. Years of BIL_CI experience and time between implants were not associated with performance. For localization, mean absolute error increased with age for low and high narrowband noise, but not for the broadband noise. Response gain was negatively correlated with age for all localization stimuli. Neither BIL_CI listening experience nor time between implants significantly impacted localization ability. Subjectively, participants report reduction in disability with the addition of the second CI. There is no observed relationship between age or speech recognition score and satisfaction with BIL_CI. Overall performance on binaural listening tasks was poorer in older adults than in younger adults. However, older adults were able to achieve significant benefit from the addition of a second CI, and performance on binaural tasks was not correlated with overall device satisfaction. The significance of the improvement was task and stimulus dependent but suggested a critical limit may exist for optimal performance on SIN tasks for CI users. Specifically, older adults require at least a +8 dB SNR to understand 50% of speech postoperatively; therefore, solely utilizing a fixed +5 dB SNR preoperatively to qualify CI candidates is not recommended as this test condition may introduce limitations in demonstrating CI benefit