Although contemporary researchers are concerned about overexposure of portable listening devices (PLD) for adolescents and young adults who often prefer listening to music at high levels for a long time, many of these studies have focused on either comparing sound pressure levels of various kinds of earphones or evaluating the recognition of noise-included hearing loss and listening habits through surveys. Further still, current criteria were developed for occupational noise-induced hearing loss, so there are only a few published guidelines for hearing insults due to recreational noise exposure. The present study, therefore, measures actual listening levels and PLD time in college students using a real-time measurement system and applying that gathered scientific data to the internationally recommended noise exposure standards. Thirty-four college students were asked to listen to music similar to their daily lifestyles for 4-weeks. After installing the application, the Google account that linked to the user’s mobile phone was logged into the server communication. When a subject listened to music, the average and maximum listening levels and listening time could then be recognized as his or her Google account ID and stored in the database for analysis. User data was measured at 1-s intervals and delivered to the main server system every 5 s. The data were analyzed as LZeq for mean levels and LCpeak for maximum levels, and also for PLD use time. The mean of the preferred listening level was 68–70 dB SPL for 4 weeks with long enough break times. That is, the listening levels of college students were not high enough to induce instant hearing loss when they used PLD. However, there was a large individual difference in the listening levels and use times. When applied to three recommended noise exposure criteria, the number of exceeded subjects also differed from 0 to 56.72% depending on the criterion. We thus suggest that appropriate and standardized criteria for music-induced hearing loss might be proposed for recreational PLD users.

Tinnitus is a phantom auditory sensation that commonly co-occurs with hearing loss. Both tinnitus and hearing loss can impact the quality of life, emotional well-being, and cognitive functioning of the affected individuals. While previous studies have highlighted structural alterations in hearing loss and/or tinnitus, the fundamental neural mechanisms underpinning tinnitus severity remain poorly understood. In this study, we conducted a voxel-based morphometry to investigate gray matter (GM) volume differences among groups of participants with varying tinnitus severity and hearing status, and controls within a large sample. We observed reduced GM volume in the left anterior insula and right planum polare in participants with hearing loss, regardless of their tinnitus status, compared to normal hearing controls. We noted decreased GM volume in the bilateral anterior and posterior insula for those with tinnitus and normal hearing compared to a normal hearing control group. Further, the tinnitus with hearing loss group showed decreased GM volume in the left planum polare, left inferior temporal gyrus, bilateral anterior temporal gyri, and right superior frontal gyrus compared to the normal hearing control group, suggesting a combined effect of hearing loss and tinnitus. While tinnitus severity did not show a significant overall effect, there was a significant positive correlation between tinnitus distress and GM volume in bilateral planum polare. Our findings enhance the understanding of structural brain changes related to hearing loss and tinnitus, and advance the overall knowledge of tinnitus pathophysiology, which can contribute to the development of more effective treatments for tinnitus.

Hyperacusis remains a misunderstood and often confusing hearing disorder that is complicated by a lack of consensus about how best to diagnose it and characterize its severity. This study reviews the clinical tools currently available for loudness hyperacusis by applying a systematic search and meta-analysis technique to identify a more reliable testing method. From the systematic review of electronic journal databases, nine studies and 14 studies met our inclusion criteria for hyperacusis questionnaires and for behavioral loudness measurement, respectively. Meta-analysis was also conducted to determine the most critical testing frequency that evaluates the loudness discomfort levels (LDL) by using data extracted from 1,783 subjects (1,548 for hyperacusis and 235 for normal hearing function). The effect size for LDL values was estimated using the mean and standard deviation for the hyperacusis group and the control group. The 10 questionnaires selected from nine studies varied in the number of questions in four typical subcategories (physical, attentional/perceptual, emotional, and behavioral/social). In the meta-analysis, individuals with hyperacusis had significantly lower LDL levels compared to the controls. Although there were no significant differences between two groups as a function of testing frequencies, we found a notable trend at LDL of 2 kHz with standardized mean difference and descriptive analysis. Due to the heterogeneity of the questionnaires, we suggest that the clinician should choose the appropriate questionnaire based on the functional impact of hyperacusis. In addition, when measuring LDL in hyperacusis, it is clinically efficient to first measure at 2 kHz.

This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of the multilingual automatic speech recognition (ASR) model Whisper large-v3 (OpenAI, San Francisco, CA, USA) in recognizing isolated Korean monosyllables (consonant-vowel and consonant-vowel-consonant structures) produced by two older adults with sensorineural hearing loss, using expert audiologists as the perceptual reference standard. Two older Korean adults (87-year-old male, 78-year-old female) each produced 130 Korean monosyllables. Four audiologists independently transcribed the tokens under blinded conditions. The same audio files were processed using Whisper large-v3 (OpenAI) in an offline environment with Korean language settings. Phoneme-level accuracy, inter-rater agreement, and error patterns were compared across raters, speakers, and phoneme categories. Audiologist transcription showed moderate agreement (mean accuracy: 59.7% for S-001 and 61.7% for S-002; perfect agreement: 55.4% and 62.0%, respectively), reflecting variability in elderly speech perception. In contrast, Whisper demonstrated substantially lower accuracy (13.1% and 13.8%), with high error rates. Errors were primarily observed in specific phoneme categories, including tense consonants, fricatives, liquids, and mid-front vowels, whereas nasals and high vowels were relatively preserved. Whisper did not achieve higher transcription accuracy than audiologists for any monosyllable tested. Whisper large-v3 (OpenAI) shows substantially lower performance than human audiologists in phoneme-level transcription of Korean monosyllables produced by older adults with sensorineural hearing loss. These findings suggest that general-purpose ASR systems have limited clinical applicability in this population and should currently be considered as assistive tools rather than replacements for expert evaluation. Further development, including elderly- and Korean-specific model adaptation, is required.