OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to develop a Turkish-specific speech recognition test, considering phonemic balance, homogeneity, and familiarity criteria. MATERIALS and METHODS:The most frequently used Turkish monosyllabic words were selected from the corpus. Thirty-six young adults with normal hearing were divided into two groups and asked to listen to words from the word pool; the words were given twice at six different intensity levels. The least and most frequently known words were identified and eliminated in order to provide homogeneity. Three word lists, each composed of 50 phonemically balanced words, were developed to be used in the tests. These lists were divided into two according to the phonemic balance criteria. RESULTS:No statistically significant difference was found among the word lists. Furthermore, the internal reliability of each list was analyzed using KR-20 and was found to be above 98% for all lists. CONCLUSION:The lists derived from the Turkish language were ascertained to be appropriate for use. As a result of using the developed lists to test individuals with various auditory pathologies, it will be possible to assess the lists' capability to distinguish pathological cases according to the location of the pathology.

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Objective: Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is one of the most important problems affecting both social and professional life of patients. There is no treatment method considered to be successful on the hearing loss that has become a permanent nature. Aim of this study is to evaluate protective effect of Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) against NIHL in an animal model. Methods: Twenty-eight rats were separated into four groups [control saline (group I), control KRG (group II), saline + noise (group III), KRG + noise (group IV)]. Rats in the saline and KRG groups were fed via oral gavage with a dose of 200 mg/kg/day throughout for 10 days. Fourteen rats (group III and IV) were exposed to 4 kHz octave band noise at 120 dB SPL for 5 hours. Hearing levels of rats were evaluated by distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) and auditory brainstem responses (ABR) at 4, 8, 12, 16 and 32 kHz frequencies prior to and on days 1, 7 and 10 after the noise exposure. Rats were sacrificed on 10th day, after the last audiological test. Cochlea and spiral ganglion tissues were evaluated by light microscopy. Results: Audiological and histological results demonstrated that after noise the group IV showed better results than group III. In the noise exposed groups, the most prominent damage was seen at the 8 kHz frequency region than other regions. After the noise exposure, DPOAE responses were lost in 1st, 7th and 10th measurements in both group III and IV. Thus, we were not able to perform any statistical analyses for DPOAE results. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that KRG seems to be an efficient agent against NIHL. There is need for additional research to find out about the mechanisms of KRG’s protective effect.

Background: Deteriorated speech understanding is a common complaint in elderly people, and behavioraltests are used for routine clinical assessment of this problem. Cortical auditory evoked potentials(CAEPs) are frequently used for assessing speech detection and discrimination abilities of the elderly,and give promise for differential diagnosis of speech understanding problems.<br />Purpose: The aim of the study was to compare the P1, N1, and P2 CAEP latencies and amplitudes inpresbycusis with low and high word recognition score (WRS).<br />Research Design: A cross-sectional study design was used for the study. Two groups were formed fromthe patients with presbycusis based on their scores on the speech recognition test.<br />Study Sample: Fifty-seven elderly volunteers participated in the study. The first group composed of 27participants with high WRS, the other group composed of 30 participants with low WRS.<br />Data Collection and Analysis: The CAEP waves were recorded from these participants using speech signals.Latencies and amplitudes of P1-N1-P2 waves of the two groups were compared with the t-test statistic.<br />Results: There were significant prolongation of P1 and N1 latencies in presbycusis with low WRS whencompared with presbycusis with a relatively high word score (p < 0.05).<br />Conclusion: According to the result of the research, P1 and N1 latencies of presbycusis with low WRSwere longer than the participants with high WRS. Factors affecting peripheral auditory system, such asstimulus sensation level, might be responsible for P1 and N1 latency prolongation of the low WRS group.<br />

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