In humans, damage to the inner ear by factors such as loud noise and some types of drugs can lead to permanent hearing loss. However in birds, these damaged cells in the inner ear can regenerate throughout a bird's life to restore hearing. Dr Nico Daudet, the inaugural Deafness Research UK UCLEI Research Fellow, is investigating some of the signals and processes thought to be important for regeneration in chick ears, which may help researchers in the future to reverse hearing loss in humans.

Do you struggle to hear properly at parties and at other group gatherings? If so, you are not alone and your brain- rather than your ear - could be to blame for this inability to ‘zoom in’ on the person you want to hear.

A new study into hearing has uncovered the secret of our extraordinary ability to perceive a range of sounds - from a pin dropping to the roar of a jet engine - and could lead to a better understanding of deafness and hearing loss.

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

This week, BBC TV's See Hear took a journey into the workings of the deaf brain - conducting fascinating tests and talking to experts in the field about their latest research, including scientists from the UCL Ear Institute funded by Deafness Research UK.

Scientists from the UK and Germany have recently discovered the first evidence that hair cells in the inner ear that process high-pitched tones are different to the cells that process lower pitches.

New research published today in the journal Current Biology has added significantly to our understanding of how the ear works, giving hope to millions of deaf and hard of hearing people.

The ability to hear the pitch of a sound is important, not only for music appreciation, but also for listening to speech, especially in noisy environments.

The brain is as important as the ear for hearing. In addition to receiving and interpreting sound signals that have been converted by the inner ear into electrical impulses, the brain also sends signals back to earlier stages in the hearing pathway. One such stage is the brainstem – between the inner ear and the mid-brain – is thought to control the amplification of sounds in the inner ear.

Deafness Research UK is delighted to be teaming up with the Royal Philharmonic Society, Classic FM and a number of other prestigious partners for a major new cultural and educational initiative for 2008.

Following successful previews in 2007, The Bionic Ear Show 2008 opens in Brighton at the end of February.

To hear, do you need your brain? Or your ears? What happens when parts of the ear go wrong and why do people go deaf as they age? How can we fix these problems? Would you still be able to hear if we artificially replaced every part of your ear?

Why is the cochlea in our ears shaped like a spiral? According to new work by scientists in the US, the spiral shape makes us more sensitive to low frequency sounds.

A Deafness Research UK researcher, working as part of an international collaboration, has established one of the genes responsible for the development of the sensory regions in the inner ear, which include the hair cells that detect sound.

Scientists at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) report that they have discovered some key mechanisms underlying how stereocilia - the tiny hair-like projections jutting from the top surface of hair cells - develop to form their characteristic architecture.