Tracking heart rate can help detect hearing loss early

Assessing human hearing ability by tracking the heart rate can lead to early detection of hearing loss that can help in the development of communication and language skills, say researchers. The team, measured heart rate with a brain imaging method called functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The technique records the brain's response to sounds and cardiac information such as heart rate.

The researchers were able to confirm that sound levels "directly affect heart rate", it was reported on Saturday. 

Early detection of hearing loss is vital for babies born with a hearing impairment. Identifying and treating hearing loss early is "imperative for good language development, with life-long consequences for social, educational and employment opportunities, and quality of life," according to the study, published in the journal. 

The team played a range of sounds with different volumes and monitored the participant's cardiac response, with the results showing that heart rate was "directly affected by sound levels". When lower level sounds were played, a significantly lowered heart rate was recorded, for higher level sounds, an increased heart rate occurred.

The objective methods of measuring hearing are crucial for babies and other people who are unable to communicate what they hear, said lead author. The effect of sounds on heart rate is a vital finding that contributes toward the development of a novel objective hearing assessment system which combines heart rate information with brain responses, to enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of hearing assessment in infants, the researchers noted.

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Smartphones, tablets could change children's brain structures

Children who spend more than seven hours a day on screens like smartphones and video games experience "premature thinning of the cortex," according to a new and ongoing study.
 
The study plans to follow more than 11,000 adolescents for a decade to see how childhood experiences impact the brain.

The first findings from the study is already available. By scanning brains of 4,500 participants, researchers found that children who use smartphones, tablets and video games more than seven hours a day showed premature thinning of cortex.

"That's typically thought to be a maturational process. So what we could expect to see later is happening a little bit earlier," said a Dr.  working on the project when interviewed .

Dr. said it is still early to tell whether the change was caused by the screen time, and whether or not it is a bad thing. "It won't be until we follow them over time that we will see if there are outcomes that are associated with the differences that we're seeing in this single snapshot," she said.

Early results from the study also showed that as little as two hours of screen time daily could negatively affect children: Those who have more than two hours of screen time a day got lower scores on tests focused on thinking and language skills.

As Dr. noted, a full picture of the screen-time effects won't be possible until years down the line, when the study is complete. 

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