Objective: This study was aimed to survey the hearing status of the patients with definite MS. The results of this study may help to confirm the diagnosis and to improve our knowledge of different aspects of this disease and to optimize the treatment and rehabilitative techniques.
Material & Methods: This study is performed in audiology clinic of rehabilitation science faculty of Iran medical science university as an assesive-analytic procedure in winter of 2000 in 40 MS patients (Referred from the MS clinic of Shohada Hospital) of 20 to 45 years old. All the patients have no history of otologic problems. The results of conventional audiologist tests (PTA, SRT, SDS, imittance audiometry) and ABR findings of MS patients were compared to the results of control group.
Results: The differences between the means of low, high and mid frequency PTAve in MS patients and control group were statistically significant (P<0.05). There was no significant difference between two groups in the speech test&aposs results, statistically. The results of ART test show statistically significant differences between experimental and control groups. The only differences in ABR results were seen for the absolute latency of the wave V and IPLs (I-V, III-V) between two groups. The amplitude ratio of V/I in MS patients 1.5 was within the normal range (0.5 to 2). There was a statistically significant relationship between mean of mid frequency PTAve and prolongation of absolute latency of the wave V. The relationship between ABR and SDS and also between ART and ABR were not statistically significant. Finally, the results of this study suggested that low, high and mid frequency PTAve, ART, absolute latency of the wave V, and IPLs III-V, I-V can be used ascomplementory method to confirm the diagnosis of MS with other conventional methods such as: MRI, CSF analysis, SEP and VEP.

Background and Aim: To date, the function of auditory efferent system remains unclear. There is evidence that medial olivocochlear bundle receives descending input from the cortex. In this study, the effect of auditory selective attention on stimulus-frequency otoacoustic emissions (SFOAE) was analyzed to investigate the modification of peripheral auditory system by auditory cortex activity in frequency specific mode.
Methods: Thirty-six normal hearing adult subjects with their age ranging from 18 to 30 years (mean age: 21.9 years) participated in this cross-sectional study. Contralateral suppression of stimulus-frequency otoacoustic emissions was recorded in the right ear at 2 KHz. In order to eliminate the auditory attention, subjects were instructed to read a text. Besides, in order to evaluate the effect of auditory attention on contralateral suppression, subjects were instructed to detect target tones in background noise at 1000, 2000, and 4000 KHz.
Results: A significant increase at contralateral suppression of stimulus-frequency otoacoustic emissions was observed in auditory selective attention conditions (p≤0.001). The largest magnitude of stimulus-frequency otoacoustic emissions suppression was seen at 2 KHz.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the activities of medial olivocochlear bundle enhanced by contralateral auditory selective attention increase the magnitude of stimulus-frequency otoacoustic emissions suppression. In fact, these results provided evidence for influence of auditory cortex on the peripheral auditory system via corticofugal pathways in a frequency specific way.

Background and Aim: Auditory and visual processing along with phonological and visual spatial working memory are the problems that patients with dyslexia struggle with. So, the aim of this project was to investigate the effectiveness of computerized cognitive training on the working memory performance of children with dyslexia.

Methods: The study conducted under the quasi-experimental method with pre- and post-test along with the control group. 25 children with dyslexia aged 7 to 12 years in grades 1-5 assigned to the experimental (15) and control (10) groups the experimental group received 30 sessions of the Brain Ware Safari intervention program. NAMA scale and Working Memory Test Battery for Children (WMTB-C) were conducted to assess reading and working memory performance of the subjects. MANCOVA, ANCOVA and effect sizes were utilized to analyze the data.

Results: There were significant differences between pre- and post-tests of the experimental and control groups on the forward and backward block recall subtests of WMTB-C and not the mazes memory. Regarding the subscales of NAMA scale, we found no significant differences in the reading performance but analysis of effect sizes showed positive effects at least on the 6 subscales.

Conclusion: The Brain Ware Safari computerized cognitive training can improve visual spatial working memory of children with dyslexia and probably may affect the reading performance.

Background and Aim: Hearing impairment can have an impact on adolescents’ quality of life and can lead to their isolation and depression. The main purpose of this research was to study the effectiveness of a mental rehabilitation program based on positive thinking skills training on increasing happiness in a group of hearing impaired girls and boys.

Methods: In this experimental study, pre- and post-test plan with a control group was used. All of the hearing impaired students (girls and boys) in all high schools of southern parts of Tehran, Iran, in year 2012-13 were our statistical research community. 48 hearing impaired girls and boys were selected by multistage sampling including stratified, purposive, and random sampling. They were randomly divided into two groups of experimental and control. Each group consists of 12 boys and 12 girls. Positive thinking skills were trained to experimental groups during eight 45-minutes sessions, twice a week. We used the Oxford happiness questionnaire to assess the level of happiness.

Results: Using analysis of covariance showed that positive thinking skills training had meaningful and positive effect on increasing happiness of hearing impaired boys and girls in the experimental groups (p<0.01). Also, the mean happiness scores of boys and girls were meaningfully different (p<0.01).

Conclusion: Positive thinking skills training increases the happiness scores of hearing impaired adolescents. So, the approach taken in this study can be considered as an appropriate method for psychological-education interventions, counseling and treatment in hearing impaired adolescent.