Thursday, March 13, 2025 3/13/2025

Middle Ear Nonlinearity in High Intensity Sound: Impact on Hearing Damage and Protection

Award Number: R01DC016079
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

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ABSTRACT: Our ears are vulnerable to intense sounds (> 130 dB SPL) that can damage middle- and inner-ear structures and produce temporary or permanent hearing loss. Prior research has focused on studying damage to the cochlea, but relatively little is known of how the middle ear transmits extremely high-level damaging sounds to the cochlea. While the middle ear muscle reflex elicited by high level steady state sounds can reduce sound transmission to the cochlea, it cannot protect the ear during brief impulsive sounds. Nonlinear mechanisms of the middle ear that can provide protection for impulsive sounds have been observed. However, there are few quantitative studies of middle ear nonlinear processes, and the contributions of nonlinear mechanisms to the frequency and level dependence of middle ear sound transfer are not well described. Furthermore, the etiologies of middle ear structural failures produced by intense sounds are poorly known, as are their effects on middle ear function. This lack of knowledge limits our ability to prevent such failures. There is also a lack of knowledge of how surgically reconstructed middle ears with a passive prosthesis or graft work and their failure rate at high level sounds. To tackle these questions, we propose three aims in this study. Aim 1 will use human cadaveric temporal bones to systematically characterize middle ear nonlinear processes in time and frequency domains at high intensity, in normal and reconstructed middle ears, to gain critical new knowledge on middle ear structure and function at high sound levels. Aim 2 will extend the sound intensity to levels that can rupture the tympanic membrane and other soft tissues to investigate the cause and time history of failures in normal and reconstructed middle ears. For Aim 3, we propose to develop finite element middle ear nonlinear models that incorporate multiple middle ear nonlinear mechanisms, including impulsive time-domain models and continuous tone frequency-domain models. This study will impact our ability to predict noise-induced hearing damage, development of new strategies for ear protection and improvements in the surgical repair of damaged middle ears.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $362,711 )
2025	2025	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	9	3/4/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$362,711
														Subtotal = $362,711

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $403,234 )
2024	2024	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	8	5/2/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$40,323
2024	2024	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	8	3/1/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$362,911
														Subtotal = $403,234

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $403,444 )
2023	2023	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	7	2/17/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$403,444
														Subtotal = $403,444

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $420,645 )
2022	2022	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	6	3/14/2022	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$420,645
2022	2022	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	003	6	8/9/2022	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$185,879
2022	2021	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	5	3/10/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2022	2021	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	002	5	8/9/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$185,879
														Subtotal = $420,645

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $408,421 )
2021	2021	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	5	1/7/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$40,843
2021	2021	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	5	1/5/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$367,578
														Subtotal = $408,421

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $408,846 )
2020	2020	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	4	1/27/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$408,846
														Subtotal = $408,846

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $398,767 )
2019	2019	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	3	1/16/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$398,767
														Subtotal = $398,767

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $399,159 )
2018	2018	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	2	1/26/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$359,242
2018	2018	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	2	4/4/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$39,917
														Subtotal = $399,159

Issue Date FY: 2017 ( Subtotal = $427,548 )
2017	2017	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	1	2/17/2017	NEW	$64,132
2017	2017	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	1	2/7/2017	NEW	$363,416
														Subtotal = $427,548

Grand Total All Awards = $3,632,775

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Middle Ear Nonlinearity in High Intensity Sound: Impact on Hearing Damage and Protection

Award Number: R01DC016079

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

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