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For Hearing SolutionsMcNeill Audiology

1463 Hampshire Road Victoria,BC V8S 4T5

Tel: 370-2833

5 - 9843 Second Street Sidney, BC V8L 3C7

Tel: 656-2218

E-mailadmin@mcneillaudiology.ca

Websitewww.mcneillaudiology.ca

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Nineteenth EditionWinter 2015-16

Continued on page 2 . . .

Widex Uniqueby Katie MacDonald, M.Sc., Aud (C) Registered Audiologist

Widex, one of the major hearing aid manufacturers, has just launched it’s newest hearing aid technology called the “Unique” platform. The new chip platform has increased

capabilities that are designed to help clients hear and understand con-versations in most listening situations. The new computer chip is able to process a wider range of sound input to the hearing aid, has a new way of decreasing soft level unwanted noise, and a better way of detecting and decreasing wind noise. Widex’s goal is to have loud sounds be com-fortable, to have conversational speech sounds be both comfortable and intelligible and to have soft sounds audible.

During the seven year process Widex spent developing the new computer chip, researchers recorded a number of different listening situations that people were in and they found that listeners are truly unique with their types of listen-ing situations. However, the researchers also found that these different listening situations, or ‘sound scapes’, have their own characteristics and certain listening situations can be grouped into the same sound class. They classify most of the sounds into 9 different sounds classes, or ‘soundscapes’. Therefore, you will find 9 different sound classes in Widex Unique hearing aids: 1) Quiet 6) Urban with speech2) Quiet with speech 7) Party3) Transport 8) Party with speech and4) Transport with speech 9) Music.5) Urban

Within each soundscape, different features of the hearing aid are turned on to different levels. The classifier in the hearing aid determines which

Some Important News About Your Batteriesby Chelsea Burdge, M.Sc., Aud (C) Registered Audiologist

As of December 31st, 2015, all button cell batter-ies produced, including hearing aid batteries, will be required to be mercury-free to follow

new Government of Canada legislation. The packaging also has to clearly state that the batteries are mercury free.

The environmentally friendly transition to mercury-free has already be-gun, which means a change to how you use your batteries. Hearing aids use zinc-air batteries, which are activated by oxygen that hits the battery’s air holes when you peel off the protective sticker. One important thing to know about these mercury-free batteries is that it takes approximately two minutes for the battery to “charge up” after you remove the sticker.

Earlier this year, an eighth grade hearing aid user and his audiologist completed a study to determine how “wait time” after peeling off the sticker impacts battery life. They found that waiting a full five minutes after peeling off the sticker increased battery life by 80%! We recommend that all hearing aid users try this out to see if you can prolong your bat-tery life. If you do not have that kind of time, waiting about two minutes is sufficient.

Rather than taking the hearing aids out and then taking off the battery sticker and waiting for it to “breathe”, we suggest that you leave the aid in your ear while you peel off the sticker, wait a few minutes, and THEN take the aid out and insert the new battery. That way, if you are out and about, you won’t have to miss out on conversations while waiting for your battery to “charge up”. Please contact your audiologist if you have any questions about the change to hearing aid batteries. q

sound class the hearing aid should switch to based on the incoming sounds.

The hearing aid changes the sound class automatically depending on the sound input into the aid. This means that the client wearing the hearing aid does not have to make any adjustments. However, because it is a computer chip and not the human brain, you are still able to make some adjustments. Instead of strictly a volume con-trol, there is now a ‘preference control’. When you decrease with

either a remote control or the hearing aid, the volume of the hearing aid is turned down, but also other features which help to make things more comfortable are activated. If it is turned up, then the volume will increase. As well the features that are responsible for detecting speech will be more activated.

The Unique computer chip is part of a line of hearing aids with dif-ferent levels of technical features with different prices. Please con-tact your audiologist for further information on Widex’s newest hearing aid product line. q

Brent has Retired

In January of 2015 Brent retired from the field of audiology, a

career that he loved. A retirement party was held for him at St. John’s United in late August.

Teaching and supporting the pro-fession of audiology were impor-tant to Brent but the most cher-ished memories from his career are the connections with his clients and being able to assist them with their hearing.

Retirement for Brent means more time with his friends, children and grandchildren, more time in his garden and with his banjo, and more time to volunteer with his church.

All of the audiologists at McNeill Audiology were mentored by Brent and handpicked to work with us. He is therefore confident that his clients will receive the best hear-ing care possible during his retire-ment. q

Widex Unique continued . . . from page 1

News in Hearing Researchby Edward Storzer, M.Sc., Aud (C) Registered Audiologist

Our latest update in the hearing sciences includes a new study that suggests hearing aid use can potentially re-duce cognitive decline, the latest findings in tinnitus research, and an interesting study about our unconscious

ability to “hear’ distance.

Can Hearing Aid Use Reduce the Risk of Cognitive

Decline Associated with Hearing Loss?

This October, Neuropsy-chology and Epidemiology

Professor Helene Amieva from the University of Bordeaux, France published results from a 25 year longitudinal study that measured cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss that do or do not use hearing aids. Results showed hearing loss in adults above the age of 65 was associated with lower scores on a test of cogni-tive function independent of age, sex and education. However, the study found that subjects with hearing loss that used hearing aids had no difference in rate of cogni-tive decline than subjects without reported hearing loss. This study indicates potential benefits of wearing hearing aids on cogni-tive function, and calls for further research in this area. q

Source: Amieva, et al. Self-Reported Hearing Loss, Hearing Aids, and Cognitive Decline in Elderly Adults: A 25-Year Study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Association. October 20, 2015.

Advances in Identifying the Mechanisms of the Brain that

are Responsible for Tinnitus and Chronic Pain

Collaborators from the Techni-cal University of Munich and

Georgetown Medical Center have carried out research that claims to have identified defects in the brain that lead to tinnitus and chronic pain. They have identified areas of the brain that normally act as a ‘gatekeeping system’ to control our perception of external and internal sensory stimulation. They explain that these mechanisms can lose the ability to control noise and pain signals long after the initial injury occurred. They describe tinni-tus and chronic pain as common and real perceptions that occur when the brain cannot effectively ‘down-regulate’ the sensations. They suggest that identifying these mechanisms should aid in devel-oping therapies to restore proper function of these gatekeeping controls. q

Source: Rauschecker, et al. Fron-tostriatal Gating of Tinnitus and Chronic Pain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2015.

Our Unconscious Ability

To ‘Hear’ Distance

Sounds travel more slowly than light. Therefore, we will often

see events before we hear them.Researchers from the University of Rochester have discovered that our brain can detect sound delays and estimate distances of nearby events, even though these delay times are too short to be con-sciously noticed! These findings show us that our auditory brain is good at unconsciously recognizing sound patterns that can help us in a useful way in our perception of distance. q

Source: Jaekl, et al. Audiovisual de-lay as a novel cue to visual distance. Public Library Of Science One. 2015.

We are thrilled to intro-duce Chelsea Burdge, our

newest audiologist with McNeill Audiology. Chelsea comes to us with a UBC Masters of Audiol-ogy degree and experience in Nunavut, servicing people of all ages in the Baffin Island region.

For Chelsea, audiology is the perfect combination of working hands-on with amazing technol-ogy while also helping people with their health.

We met Chelsea when she com-pleted one of her clinical extern-ships with us while attending UBC. She is happy to be back at home in Victoria, where she and her husband love to spend time enjoying and exploring the won-derful West Coast. She is pas-sionate about providing the best possible service to people with hearing loss and looks forward to meeting you. q

Introducing Chelsea Burdge

Presenting Sponsor

Once again it was a privilege and a pleasure to sponsor the Big Band Bash, organized by the Island Deaf and Hard of Hearing Centre as

their primary fund raiser for the year. The Island Big Band, the Swiftsure Big Band and the Commodores Big Band graciously donated their time and music and a great time was had by all. q

The swing lesson was

popular with some of our staff.

Mary & Edward

Newlyweds Amanda &

Robert

Chelsea & Tristan

Dwayne & Tara

Mary & Edward