Introduction

Abstract

The last two decades of the twentieth century have witnessed quantal advances in our knowledge of the biological processes that result in hearing. These have come about from the application of contemporary molecular biology, physiology, and imaging techniques that have been made available to all of biology in combination with discoveries in the domain of hearing. This volume, Clinical Aspects of Hearing, presents these pivotal developments as they are and will be applied to the understanding of normal and abnormal hearing in humans. The volume begins with information concerning the molecular genetics underlying hearing and hearing loss (Steel and Kimberling, Chapter 2). The flow of information proceeds to examine the relationship between auditory nerve regeneration and neurotropic factors (Van De Water, Staecker, Apfel, and Lefebvre, Chapter 3); auditory deprivation, which is an example of the effects of central nervous system (CNS) plasticity (Gravel and Ruben, Chapter 4); ototoxicity (Garetz and Schact, Chapter 5); viral infection and immune disease of the inner ear (Woolf, Chapter 6); otoacoustic emissions (Whitehead, Longsbury-Martin and McCoy, Chapter 7), and ends with information concerning tinnitus (Penner and Jastreboff, Chapter 8). The subjects covered in these seven chapters are products of the integration of knowledge of basic science and the morbidity found in clinical otology.