Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are crucial for understanding the impact of cochlear implants (CIs) on real-world functional abilities and quality of life (QOL) and for monitoring changes over time. However, CI clinical outcome measures traditionally focus solely on CI users' speech recognition ability to evaluate treatment success, which limits our understanding of CI's effects on patients' social isolation, emotional impact, and mental and listening effort related to severe hearing loss. Moreover, patient's speech recognition scores demonstrate low correlations with CI users' real-world communication experiences and QOL. Therefore, there is a critical gap in the measures commonly used to quantify patient outcomes after CI activation. To address this gap, we developed the Cochlear Implant Quality of Life (CIQOL)-35 Profile instrument, which provides a comprehensive, patient-centered assessment of CI-related functional abilities and QOL. However, difficultly in interpreting an individual patient's PROM score is a major barrier for PROM implementation and applications to clinical care. Therefore, additional work is critical for clinicians to appropriately interpret CIQOL-35 Profile scores for individual patients and apply those results to inform intervention decisions and monitor patient progress. In the current study we will longitudinally assess CI users CIQOL scores to help identify CI users with lower functional abilities who may benefit from increased support and allow clinicians to better track functional improvement after implantation for individual patients. This work will inform patient discussions regarding expected outcomes and timeframe for improvement.

Meniere's disease is a common cause of vertigo that becomes more common with age. Unfortunately, Meniere's disease and vestibular migraine have significant overlap and are sometimes difficult to diagnose. This is due to a lack of understanding of the true cause of Meniere's disease. Due to the lack of a biomarker (an objective test), the diagnosis of Meniere's disease has been based on clinical history and hearing loss. We are exploring ways to differentiate Meniere's disease and vestibular migraine, potentially through a lab test. In addition, identifying biomarkers may help early diagnosis and direct more personalized treatment strategies, especially early on before hearing loss occurs.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate participants Quality of Life (QOL) with their Cochlear implant (CI) through a variety of questionnaires and hearing tests.

There will be a pre-surgical visit as well as 3, 6, and 12 month post-surgery visits. In this study, the participants will take surveys and hearing tests at each visit. He or she will complete surveys on the computer through REDCap and the hearing tests will be completed in sound-attenuating booth using headphones in the Walton Research building on MUSC's campus. The study participation is complete once the participant has completed all 4 study visits.

Older adults typically have trouble identifying the speech they hear, especially in noisy environments. Fortunately, compared to younger adults, older adults are better able to compensate for difficulties identifying the speech they hear by recruiting the visual system. However, the extent to which older adults can benefit from visual input, and how this influence relates to age-related changes in brain structure and function, have not been thoroughly investigated. The general purpose of this study is to determine how age-related changes in brain structure and function affect how well people hear and see. This study seeks participants with normal hearing to mild hearing loss, who also have normal or corrected-to-normal vision.

In the first arm of this study (Pro00063109) we developed a list of questions that will be utilized in a new quality of life questionnaire for cochlear implant users. We developed a survey to be used in the clinical setting based on these questions. We would like to gather data from a large number of implant users in order to validate the questionnaire. In the survey subjects are asked how hearing loss and having a cochlear implant affects their life. Enrolled subjects will complete the combined experimental survey paired with the current gold standard quality of life measures at two time points two weeks apart, greater than a year after receiving cochlear implantation.

As people get older, understanding speech with competing talkers can become more difficult. The MUSC Hearing Research Program is seeking healthy adults aged 50 to 89 years to participate in a research study investigating the connection between hearing and the brain. Payment is provided for participation, and scheduling is flexible. The study involves two to four visits. Participants must be able to complete an MRI. Please contact us if you would like to participate in this research or learn more about our study.