We welcomed the BBC’s new drama ‘The Silence’ for its potential to raise awareness of the issues facing people with hearing impairments. There has been a lot of discussion on the BBC’s and other message boards about the main actress Genevieve Barr and her portrayal of an 18 year old who is successfully fitted with a cochlear implants and whose subsequent struggle to adapt to the hearing world is complicated further when she witnesses a murder.

Rosemary Lovett has recently completed a Deafness Research UK PhD to answer this question. Her project, supervised by Professor Quentin Summerfield at the University of York, has shown that having two (bilateral) implants is associated with improved spatial listening skills in children.

Millions of people today benefit from hearing aids and cochlear implants. Unfortunately, however, these devices can easily fall off during movement and are damaged by water. Problems often occur with the devices during sport, swimming and even showers. This inevitably causes certain lifestyle limitations.

Loss of or damage to the sensory hair cells of the inner ear is the leading cause of both congenital and acquired deafness. Hair cells usually connect to nerve cells that form a pathway (called the 'spiral ganglion’) into the brain, but if the hair cells degenerate, so does the spiral ganglion.

Human and mouse share hearing deficit caused by mutation in microRNA

Research funded by RNID and Deafness Research UK has made a major breakthrough towards using stem cells as a treatment for hearing loss in the future.

Listening to loud music over headphones or working in a noisy environment are just two examples of activities that can lead to tinnitus and noise-induced hearing loss.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have shown how microscopic crystals form sound and gravity sensors inside the inner ear.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued guidance on the use of cochlear implants for children and adults with severe to profound deafness. The recommendations mean that all people who do not receive adequate benefit from acoustic hearing aids will now have the chance to obtain cochlear implants on the NHS.

In November, Hear Here! focused on hearing impairment and silence and how they effect and influence listening. Go to the Hear Here! website (www.hearhere.org.uk) for:

New research shows that hearing-impaired listeners have a reduced ability to select and pay attention to just one voice when there are multiple talkers. The research, conducted at Boston University in the USA, sheds light on why listening becomes more difficult for people with hearing loss in many everyday settings.

Infrared light can stimulate neurons in the inner ear as precisely as sound waves, a discovery that could lead to better cochlear implants for deaf people.

New research, published in the current edition of in PLoS Genetics has defined a mutation in the mouse genome that closely mimics progressive hearing loss in humans.

A personal view of the impact of deafness by Vivienne Michael, Chief Executive, Deafness Research UK

An Italian research team has shown that damage to cells in the inner ear can be repaired by stem cells transplanted from a human umbilical cord.

"My GP has just referred me for hearing tests as I have been struggling with my hearing and he has suggested I might benefit from a hearing aid. My concern is, will it take months before I get an appointment and even longer before I am fitted with a hearing aid? Can you advise me of the current situation regarding audiology waiting times?"

Research published this week in the journal Nature gives millions of deaf and hard of hearing people new hope of new gene or drug treatments for deafness.

A new breakthrough suggests that gene therapy may be developed in the future as a treatment for hearing loss. The results of the research by scientists at Oregon Health and Science University are published online this week by the journal Nature.

Mitochondria are the ‘power-plants’ inside cells that produce the main source of chemical energy, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), that fuels cell function. A crucial part of the process is played by a molecule known as a tRNA, which assembles the proteins used to make ATP inside the mitochondria.

A recent study of cochlear implant patients seen by Indiana University School of Medicine physicians is the first to show evidence that having cochlear implants in both ears significantly improves quality of life in patients with profound hearing loss, and that the cost of the second implant is offset by its benefits.

A new study by scientists at St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee sheds light on the way cells in the inner ear enable finely-tuned hearing.

The development of new treatments for hearing loss may soon be possible after new research on receptors (proteins which receive chemical signals) for the female sex hormone estradiol.

Deafness Research UK recently awarded a scholarship to Salma Mahmood, an audiology student at Aston University, to study the way in which the brain processes echoes. The work, carried out with Dr Bernhard Seeber at Nottingham's MRC Institute of Hearing Research, is important for understanding how we localize sounds indoors.

An important discovery by a team at Rutgers University in New Jersey could lead to a new generation of cochlear implants – otherwise known as “bionic ears” – and improved hearing for the profoundly or totally deaf.

The Wellcome Trust is hosting an event on Friday 29th February to showcase a new DVD of Playing God, a Wellcome Trust-funded play from Deafinitely Theatre that explores issues around cochlear implants.

In a breakthrough that is likely to accelerate research designed to find cures for hearing loss, tinnitus, and balance problems, scientists have perfected a technique that provides a reliable new source of cells critical to understanding certain inner ear disorders.

War veterans will be able to go to the front of the queue for digital hearing aids on the NHS, say ministers.

Researchers have shown that bone marrow stem cells injected into a damaged inner ear can speed hearing recovery after partial hearing loss.

Sixteen percent of adult Europeans suffer from hearing loss great enough to adversely affect their daily life, according to a new report. This is much higher than the previously generally assumed prevalence of 10 percent.

There's little scientific evidence to support the use of steroids or any other currently available therapies to treat people with sudden hearing loss, according to Canadian researchers who reviewed 21 studies conducted within the past few decades.

Researchers have discovered a way to transfer genes, which they hope will restore hearing, into diseased tissue of the human inner ear. This important step brings scientists closer to curing genetic or acquired hearing loss.

A tiny electrode array placed directly in the auditory nerve could overcome the limitations of cochlear implants.

Research is revealing that profoundly deaf people fitted with a cochlear implant can benefit from having implants in both ears.

A new study reports that a combination of high doses of vitamins A, C, and E and magnesium, taken one hour before noise exposure and continued as a once-daily treatment for five days, is very effective at preventing permanent noise-induced hearing loss.

Scientists have discovered how a membrane in the inner ear may allow us to hear different frequencies, which may have implications for the design of better hearing aids.

New research suggests that deaf children who have a cochlear implant in each ear more accurately locate sounds when they use both implants instead of one. Children with two implants also become more skilled at localizing sound over time.

Scientists exploring the physics of hearing have found an underlying molecular cause for one form of deafness, and a conceptual connection between deafness and the organization of liquid crystals, which are used in flat-panel displays.

Time and oral corticosteroid therapy can help patients regain full hearing, often within a month of sudden hearing loss, say researchers in Seoul.

Outcomes are similar for both younger and older hearing-impaired children who receive surgically implanted devices called bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHAs), Canadian researchers report.

People who supplement their diets with folic acid may slow their age-related hearing loss, according to new Dutch research published in the 2nd January edition of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

A new study may have discovered why people who use cochlear implants have difficulty understanding tonal languages, like Mandarin Chinese.

Deafness Research UK is funding a new research programme that will be the first to try and develop a cure for deafness using stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood or bone marrow.

A new analysis of iPods and other portable, digital music players by researchers in the USA has produced the first-ever detailed guidelines for safe listening levels using earphones.

Children who have cochlear implants fitted after being deafened by meningitis show remarkable progress in developing speech skills, according to a five-year study.

Vision and hearing loss are likely to occur hand-in-hand in older people, research suggests.

The time people in England have to wait to get a hearing aid on the NHS has increased in more than a third of all hospitals, according to a new report published today.

Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) may be helped with steroid treatment in the ear.

Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University, USA, have found that the frequency and severity of ototoxicity - a condition in which platinum-based chemotherapy drugs damage hair cells in the inner ear - have long been underreported by the medical community.

Using progestin as part of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may cause hearing damage, scientists report.

A Turkish study has found that people who use mobile phones a lot are more likely to suffer from hearing loss than those who who use them moderately or not at all.