This study aims to investigate the impact of middle ear effusion(MEE)on sound transmission in the human ear and its potential diagnostic significance.Firstly,the material properties of specific structures were adjuste...This study aims to investigate the impact of middle ear effusion(MEE)on sound transmission in the human ear and its potential diagnostic significance.Firstly,the material properties of specific structures were adjusted based on the existing human ear finite element(FE)model,and the accuracy of the model was validated using experimental data.Secondly,six FE models were developed to simulate varying degrees of MEE by systematically altering the material properties of the middle ear cavity(MEC)at different anatomical locations.Finally,the effects of these six FE models,representing varying degrees of MEE,on sound transmission characteristics and energy absorption(EA)rate in the human ear were systematically analyzed.When the degree of MEE is less than 50%of the MEC volume,its impact on the sound transmission characteristics of the human ear remains minimal,resulting in an estimated hearing loss of approximately 3 dB,with EA rate remaining close to normal levels.Once the effusion exceeds 50%of the MEC volume,a significant deterioration in acoustic transmission is observed,accompanied by a flattening of the EA curve and a drop in EA rates to below 20%.When the effusion completely fills the MEC,the maximum hearing loss reaches 46.47 dB,and the EA rate approaches zero across the entire frequency range.These findings provide theoretical insights into the biomechanical effects of MEE on human auditory transmission and offer a reference for clinical diagnosis and evaluation.展开更多
Objective:To characterize age-related changes in wideband absorbance(WBA)among normal-hearing children aged 0-6 years through combined statistical and machine learning analyses,and to establish developmental reference...Objective:To characterize age-related changes in wideband absorbance(WBA)among normal-hearing children aged 0-6 years through combined statistical and machine learning analyses,and to establish developmental reference patterns supporting pediatric middle-ear diagnostics.Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted on 579 children(1158 ears)categorized into five age groups.All participants passed age-appropriate hearing screenings.WBA was measured under both ambient pressure(AP)and tympanometric peak pressure(TPP)conditions across 16 frequencies(226-8000 Hz).Repeated-measures analysis of variance examined the effects of age,ear side,and gender,while Random Forest classifiers and principal component analysis(PCA)explored the discriminative structure and feature importance of WBA data.Results:Neither gender nor ear side had a sig-nificantly effect on WBA patterns(p>0.05).In constrast,Age significantly influenced WBA patterns(p<0.001).Younger infants(<6 months)exhibited dual-peaked“M-shaped”curves,whereas older children(3-6 years)showed single-peaked,inverted“U-shaped”profiles centered near 1600 Hz,reflecting progressive middle-ear maturation.The Random Forest model achieved a mean accuracy of 0.73(balanced accuracy=0.58),with the top-ranked predictors(AP_1000,and AP_793)emphasizing low-to-mid frequency absorbance and pressure-compensation effects as key age indicators.PCA with k-means clustering further revealed partially distinct groupings aligned with chronological age,supporting the developmental encoding of WBA responses.Conclusion:WBA demonstrates distinct,age-dependent acoustic characteristics that correspond to physiological maturation of the middle ear.These findings provide a quantitative reference for pediatric wideband acoustic immittance and highlight the potential of machine learning in delineating developmental auditory patterns.展开更多
The auditory system of mammals enables the perception of sound from our surrounding world.Containing some of the smallest bones in the body,the ear transduces complex acoustic signals with high-temporal sensitivity to...The auditory system of mammals enables the perception of sound from our surrounding world.Containing some of the smallest bones in the body,the ear transduces complex acoustic signals with high-temporal sensitivity to complex mechanical vibrations with magnitudes as small as tens of picometers.Measurements of the shape and acoustically induced motions of different components of the ear are essential if we are to expand our understanding of hearing mechanisms,and also provide quantitative information for the development of numerical ear models that can be used to improve hearing protection,clinical diagnosis,and repair of damaged or diseased ears.We are developing digital holographic methods and instrumentation using an ultra-high speed camera to measure shape and acoustically-induced motions in the middle ear.Specifically we study the eardrum,the first structure of the middle ear which initializes the acoustic-mechanical transduction of sound for hearing.Our measurement system is capable of performing holographic measurement at rates up to 2.1 M frames per second.Two shape measurement modalities had previously been implemented into our holographic systems:(1)a multi-wavelength method with a wavelength tunable laser;and(2)a multi-angle illumination method with a single wavelength laser.In this paper,we present a third method using a miniaturized fringe projection system with a microelectromechanical system(MEMS)mirror.Further,we optimize the processing of large data sets of holographic displacement measurements using a vectorized Pearson's correlation algorithm.We validate and compare the shape and displacement measurements of our methodologies using a National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST)traceable gauge and sound-activated latex membranes and human eardrums.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(52275296)the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.
摘要This study aims to investigate the impact of middle ear effusion(MEE)on sound transmission in the human ear and its potential diagnostic significance.Firstly,the material properties of specific structures were adjusted based on the existing human ear finite element(FE)model,and the accuracy of the model was validated using experimental data.Secondly,six FE models were developed to simulate varying degrees of MEE by systematically altering the material properties of the middle ear cavity(MEC)at different anatomical locations.Finally,the effects of these six FE models,representing varying degrees of MEE,on sound transmission characteristics and energy absorption(EA)rate in the human ear were systematically analyzed.When the degree of MEE is less than 50%of the MEC volume,its impact on the sound transmission characteristics of the human ear remains minimal,resulting in an estimated hearing loss of approximately 3 dB,with EA rate remaining close to normal levels.Once the effusion exceeds 50%of the MEC volume,a significant deterioration in acoustic transmission is observed,accompanied by a flattening of the EA curve and a drop in EA rates to below 20%.When the effusion completely fills the MEC,the maximum hearing loss reaches 46.47 dB,and the EA rate approaches zero across the entire frequency range.These findings provide theoretical insights into the biomechanical effects of MEE on human auditory transmission and offer a reference for clinical diagnosis and evaluation.
基金supported by the Jiangsu Provincial College Students'Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program(no.202310313108Y).
摘要Objective:To characterize age-related changes in wideband absorbance(WBA)among normal-hearing children aged 0-6 years through combined statistical and machine learning analyses,and to establish developmental reference patterns supporting pediatric middle-ear diagnostics.Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted on 579 children(1158 ears)categorized into five age groups.All participants passed age-appropriate hearing screenings.WBA was measured under both ambient pressure(AP)and tympanometric peak pressure(TPP)conditions across 16 frequencies(226-8000 Hz).Repeated-measures analysis of variance examined the effects of age,ear side,and gender,while Random Forest classifiers and principal component analysis(PCA)explored the discriminative structure and feature importance of WBA data.Results:Neither gender nor ear side had a sig-nificantly effect on WBA patterns(p>0.05).In constrast,Age significantly influenced WBA patterns(p<0.001).Younger infants(<6 months)exhibited dual-peaked“M-shaped”curves,whereas older children(3-6 years)showed single-peaked,inverted“U-shaped”profiles centered near 1600 Hz,reflecting progressive middle-ear maturation.The Random Forest model achieved a mean accuracy of 0.73(balanced accuracy=0.58),with the top-ranked predictors(AP_1000,and AP_793)emphasizing low-to-mid frequency absorbance and pressure-compensation effects as key age indicators.PCA with k-means clustering further revealed partially distinct groupings aligned with chronological age,supporting the developmental encoding of WBA responses.Conclusion:WBA demonstrates distinct,age-dependent acoustic characteristics that correspond to physiological maturation of the middle ear.These findings provide a quantitative reference for pediatric wideband acoustic immittance and highlight the potential of machine learning in delineating developmental auditory patterns.
基金support from the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders(NIDCD R01 DC016079)is gratefully acknowledgedsupport by the Center for Holographic Studies and Laser micro-mechaTronics(CHSLT)at WPI.
摘要The auditory system of mammals enables the perception of sound from our surrounding world.Containing some of the smallest bones in the body,the ear transduces complex acoustic signals with high-temporal sensitivity to complex mechanical vibrations with magnitudes as small as tens of picometers.Measurements of the shape and acoustically induced motions of different components of the ear are essential if we are to expand our understanding of hearing mechanisms,and also provide quantitative information for the development of numerical ear models that can be used to improve hearing protection,clinical diagnosis,and repair of damaged or diseased ears.We are developing digital holographic methods and instrumentation using an ultra-high speed camera to measure shape and acoustically-induced motions in the middle ear.Specifically we study the eardrum,the first structure of the middle ear which initializes the acoustic-mechanical transduction of sound for hearing.Our measurement system is capable of performing holographic measurement at rates up to 2.1 M frames per second.Two shape measurement modalities had previously been implemented into our holographic systems:(1)a multi-wavelength method with a wavelength tunable laser;and(2)a multi-angle illumination method with a single wavelength laser.In this paper,we present a third method using a miniaturized fringe projection system with a microelectromechanical system(MEMS)mirror.Further,we optimize the processing of large data sets of holographic displacement measurements using a vectorized Pearson's correlation algorithm.We validate and compare the shape and displacement measurements of our methodologies using a National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST)traceable gauge and sound-activated latex membranes and human eardrums.