Auditory Neuropathy

Lisa wondered why I wasn't posting in my blog what she has written, like I have done with Alex's stories. Well, OK, I'll reprint the first paragraph of her paper that she just finished writing for one of her doctoral classes in audiology. I do not understand one word of it. I think that in the future I'll only allow things to be published that are at my education level. Come on Alex, when is your next book?

Auditory neuropathy (AN), or as it is sometimes called auditory dys-synchrony, is a hearing disorder characterized by an auditory system that is functioning normally to the level of the cochlear outer hair cells. The hearing loss is thought to occur in one or more of the following sites: the inner hair cells; the synapse between the inner hair cells and the auditory nerve; or in the auditory nerve itself. Specifically, inner hair cells may be absent (Hood 2002) or there may be an abnormality of otoferlin on chromosome 2 that is responsible for the protein production that causes the inner hair cells to release their neurotransmitter (Sininger, personal communication, 2005). In addition, the auditory nerve may have reduced or abnormal myelination, causing "dys-synchronous" neural firing (Sininger, et. al. 2005). AN is separate from an auditory processing disorder (APD) in that APDs involve pathologies that are more central in the auditory pathway (Hood 2002).