Understanding how the environment mediates an organism\'s ability to meet basic survival requirements is a fundamental goal of ecology. Vessel noise is a global threat to marine ecosystems and is increasing in intensity and spatiotemporal extent due to growth in shipping coupled with physical changes to ocean soundscapes from ocean warming and acidification. Odontocetes rely on biosonar to forage, yet determining the consequences of vessel noise on foraging has been limited by the challenges of observing underwater foraging outcomes and measuring noise levels received by individuals. To address these challenges, we leveraged a unique acoustic and movement dataset from 25 animal-borne biologging tags temporarily attached to individuals from two populations of fish-eating killer whales (Orcinus orca) in highly transited coastal waters to (1) test for the effects of vessel noise on foraging behaviors-searching (slow-click echolocation), pursuit (buzzes), and capture and (2) investigate the mechanism of interference. For every 1 dB increase in maximum noise level, there was a 4% increase in the odds of searching for prey by both sexes, a 58% decrease in the odds of pursuit by females and a 12.5% decrease in the odds of prey capture by both sexes. Moreover, all but one deep (≥75 m) foraging attempt with noise ≥110 dB re 1 μPa (15-45 kHz band; n = 6 dives by n = 4 whales) resulted in failed prey capture. These responses are consistent with an auditory masking mechanism. Our findings demonstrate the effects of vessel noise across multiple phases of odontocete foraging, underscoring the importance of managing anthropogenic inputs into soundscapes to achieve conservation objectives for acoustically sensitive species. While the timescales for recovering depleted prey species may span decades, these findings suggest that complementary actions to reduce ocean noise in the short term offer a critical pathway for recovering odontocete foraging opportunities.

A test is proposed to characterize the performance of speech recognition systems. The QuickSIN test is used by audiologists to measure the ability of humans to recognize continuous speech in noise. This test yields the signal-to-noise ratio at which individuals can correctly recognize 50% of the keywords in low-context sentences. It is argued that a metric for automatic speech recognizers will ground the performance of automatic speech-in-noise recognizers to human abilities. Here, it is demonstrated that the performance of modern recognizers, built using millions of hours of unsupervised training data, is anywhere from normal to mildly impaired in noise compared to human participants.

A speech intelligibility (SI) prediction model is proposed that includes an auditory preprocessing component based on the physiological anatomy and activity of the human ear, a hierarchical spiking neural network, and a decision back-end processing based on correlation analysis. The auditory preprocessing component effectively captures advanced physiological details of the auditory system, such as retrograde traveling waves, longitudinal coupling, and cochlear nonlinearity. The ability of the model to predict data from normal-hearing listeners under various additive noise conditions was considered. The predictions closely matched the experimental test data under all conditions. Furthermore, we developed a lumped mass model of a McGee stainless-steel piston with the middle-ear to study the recovery of individuals with otosclerosis. We show that the proposed SI model accurately simulates the effect of middle-ear intervention on SI. Consequently, the model establishes a model-based relationship between objective measures of human ear damage, like distortion product otoacoustic emissions, and speech perception. Moreover, the SI model can serve as a robust tool for optimizing parameters and for preoperative assessment of artificial stimuli, providing a valuable reference for clinical treatments of conductive hearing loss.

In everyday acoustic environments, reverberation alters the speech signal received at the ears. Normal-hearing listeners are robust to these distortions, quickly recalibrating to achieve accurate speech perception. Over the past two decades, multiple studies have investigated the various adaptation mechanisms that listeners use to mitigate the negative impacts of reverberation and improve speech intelligibility. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we performed a systematic review of these studies, with the aim to summarize existing research, identify open questions, and propose future directions. Two researchers independently assessed a total of 661 studies, ultimately including 23 in the review. Our results showed that adaptation to reverberant speech is robust across diverse environments, experimental setups, speech units, and tasks, in noise-masked or unmasked conditions. The time course of adaptation is rapid, sometimes occurring in less than 1 s, but this can vary depending on the reverberation and noise levels of the acoustic environment. Adaptation is stronger in moderately reverberant rooms and minimal in rooms with very intense reverberation. While the mechanisms underlying the recalibration are largely unknown, adaptation to the direct-to-reverberant ratio-related changes in amplitude modulation appears to be the predominant candidate. However, additional factors need to be explored to provide a unified theory for the effect and its applications.

BACKGROUND: Newborns are exposed to varying degrees of stressful interventions due to procedures such as heel lancing used in routine metabolic screenings. It is an examination of the effects of white noise and kangaroo care on some physiological parameters and stress markers (cortisol and glucose-regulated protein 78-GRP78) in heel lancing in newborns.
METHODS: Randomized controlled study was conducted at a gynecology service of a hospital between January and September 2023. 90 babies were divided into three groups: 30 babies in the Kangaroo Care Group (KCG), 30 babies in the White Music Group (WMG), and 30 babies in the Control Group (CG). All babies were randomly divided into groups. Stress parameters were measured by saliva collection method and physiological parameters by saturation device.
RESULTS: A statistically significant difference was determined between the total crying time, pulse and saturation values ​​according to the groups (p < 0.001; p = 0.001). A statistically significant difference was determined between the mean values ​​of cortisol and GRP78 measurements according to group and time interaction (p < 0.001). KCG was more effective in reducing total crying time and stabilizing pulse, saturation, salivary cortisol, GRP-78 values compared to WNG and CG.
CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that white noise and kangaroo care help reduce newborns\' stress in the case of heel lancing.
CONCLUSIONS: The practice of kangaroo care and the use of white noise methods may assist healthcare professionals as supportive methods in stress management during invasive procedures.
BACKGROUND: NCT06278441, registered on 19/02/2024.

During the operational phase of offshore wind farms, the generation of low-frequency underwater noise has received widespread attention due to its potential adverse impact on fish health. This study conducted a field survey of underwater noise at offshore wind farms located in Shandong province, China. Subsequently, a small-scale experiment was conducted to study the stress on black rockfish (Sebastes schlegelii). The fish were exposed to noise with dominant frequency of 80 Hz, 125 Hz and 250 Hz. These frequencies are same with the frequencies from wind power noise (wpn) at the actual site. After a 40-day experimental period, transcriptome sequencing was conducted on brain, liver, and kidney tissues of black rockfish to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in the response to noise stress originating from offshore wind farms. The results revealed that the 125 Hz group exhibited the highest number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the noise-exposed and control check group (CK group), with a total of 797 in the brain, 1076 in the liver, and 2468 in the kidney. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis showed that DEGs were significantly enriched in entries related to cellular processes, membrane components, binding, and metabolism. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis showed that DEGs were enriched mainly in metabolism, immunity, apoptosis, signal transduction, and diseases. The findings indicate that prolonged exposure to underwater noise from offshore wind farms may induce metabolic imbalance, immune dysfunction, and an increased risk of myocardial diseases in black rockfish.

OBJECTIVE: Environmental factors such as noise and music can significantly impact physiological responses, including inflammation. This study explored how environmental factors like noise and music affect lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation, with a focus on systemic and organ-specific responses.
METHODS: 24 Wistar rats were divided into four groups (n = 6 per group): Control group, LPS group, noise-exposed group, and music-exposed group. All rats, except for the Control group, received 10 mg/kg LPS intraperitoneally. The rats in the noise-exposed group were exposed to 95 dB noise, and the music-exposed group listened to Mozart\'s K. 448 music (65-75 dB) for 1 h daily over 7 days. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was utilized to detect the levels of inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), in serum and tissues (lung, liver, and kidney). Western blot examined the phosphorylation levels of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) p65 in organ tissues.
RESULTS: Compared with the Control group, LPS-induced sepsis rats displayed a significant increase in the levels of TNF-α and IL-1β in serum, lung, liver, and kidney tissues, as well as a remarkable elevation in the p-NF-κB p65 protein expression in lung, liver, and kidney tissues. Noise exposure further amplified these inflammatory markers, while music exposure reduced them in LPS-induced sepsis rats.
CONCLUSIONS: Noise exposure exacerbates inflammation by activating the NF-κB pathway, leading to the up-regulation of inflammatory markers during sepsis. On the contrary, music exposure inhibits NF-κB signaling, indicating a potential therapeutic effect in reducing inflammation.

Real-world evidence is increasingly used to support clinical and regulatory decisions globally and may be a useful tool to study the unique needs of cochlear implant users in China. The ability to recognize and understand speech in noise is critical for cochlear implant users, however, this remains a challenge in everyday settings with fluctuating competing noise levels. The Cochlear™ Sound Processor, Nucleus® 7 (CP1000), includes Forward Focus, a spatial noise algorithm aimed to improve speech-in-noise performance, and Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad functionality. We conducted a prospective, single-center, open-label, within-participant, real-world evidence investigation in participants with cochlear implants. The primary objective of this study, conducted in China, was to compare speech perception in spatially separated dynamic noise with the Nucleus 7 to the recipients\' current older Cochlear Sound Processor, including the Freedom and Nucleus 5 sound processors. A follow-up study monitored participants from the initial study up to 12-months post the fitting of their Nucleus 7 and investigated hearing ability, satisfaction, and usability of the device via a questionnaire. Forty participants were included in the initial study (age-range 3 to 49 years) and 29 continued to the follow-up study (age-range 5 to 28 years). The participants were heterogeneous in terms of age, cochlear implant experience, and duration of hearing loss. Nucleus 7 significantly improved participant speech recognition performance in noise by 7.54 dB when compared with the participants\' current older sound processor (p<0.0001). Overall satisfaction with Nucleus 7 was 72%. Satisfaction in different hearing contexts ranged from 93.1% for understanding a 1:1 conversation in a quiet setting, 62.1% for understanding on the phone, to 34.5% hearing in complex noisy situations. The study demonstrated the benefits of the Nucleus 7 sound processor across different hearing environments in a Chinese population and showed improved hearing ability, usability, and satisfaction in a real-world every-day environment.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between noise disturbance at home, sleep disturbance, and neurodevelopmental problems in 9-year-old children.
METHODS: Noise exposure (frequency) perceived by 430 9-year-old children from the INMA cohort in Valencia, Spain, were reported by their mothers. The risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as internalizing and externalizing problems, were assessed using the Child Behaviour Checklist.
RESULTS: The risk of internalizing (18%) and externalizing problems (11.7%) was higher compared to the risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (1.4%) and were more prevalent in boys than in girls. The most common and bothersome noise exposures were generated at home (50.8-55.3%) and by neighbours (24.5%). The risk of neurodevelopmental problems was associated with sleep disturbances, particularly in relation with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (16.1 vs 4%; p<0.001), with no differences observed between sex. Sleep disturbances were significantly more common in children exposed to noise from household or neighbours. High levels of noise exposure from street traffic and neighbours were linked to an increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, while noise from other children at home was associated with a higher risk of internalizing and externalizing problems. These effects remained consistent even after adjusting for sleep disturbances.
CONCLUSIONS: High levels of noise annoyance from various sources perceived at home are differently associated with the risks of different neurodevelopmental problems in 9-year-old boys and girls, with sleep disturbances not influencing this relationship.

Macrophages serve as the primary immune cell population and assume a pivotal role in the immune response within the damaged cochleae. Yet, the origin and role of macrophages in response to noise exposure remain controversial. Here, we take advantage of Ccr2RFP/+ Cx3cr1GFP/+ dual-reporter mice to identify the infiltrated and tissue-resident macrophages. After noise exposure, we reveal that activated resident macrophages change in morphology, increase in abundance, and migrate to the region of hair cells, leading to the loss of outer hair cells and the damage of ribbon synapses. Meanwhile, peripheral monocytes are not implicated in the noise-induced hair cell insults. These noise-induced activities of macrophages are abolished by inhibiting TLR4 signaling, resulting in alleviated insults of hair cells and partial recovery of hearing. Our findings indicate cochlear resident macrophages are pro-inflammatory and detrimental players in acoustic trauma and introduce a potential therapeutic target in noise-induced hearing loss.