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In a dark little laboratory that feels a bit like a cockpit, two-year-old Audrey is putting on her helmet. Or \u201cthe silly hat\u201d, as she calls it.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s an old hand at this. Scientists have been using invisible, near-infrared light transmitted from Audrey\u2019s \u201csilly hat\u201d to measure how her brain processes sound since she was just three months old.<\/p>\n
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Maureen Hagan and her daughter Audrey who was part of a recent study using the Eargenie device to measure infant hearing with researchers Ishara Paranawithana (back left) and Colette McKay (back right).<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Justin McManus<\/cite><\/p>\n Back then, Audrey was too young to tell anyone if she could hear the radio \u2013 or the silly noises sometimes made by the scientists crowded around her in the testing lab. But on his screen, researcher Ishara Paranawithana could see all the right centres of baby Audrey\u2019s brain light up as she listened.<\/p>\n It\u2019s part of groundbreaking new research by Monash University and the Bionics Institute in Melbourne to help diagnose hearing problems in babies \u2013 fast-tracking treatment during the crucial first year of brain development, and mapping the still under-explored realm of language learning.<\/p>\n Audrey\u2019s mother Maureen Hagan is a neuroscientist at Monash herself and says the brain is the last big frontier for medical science. \u201cSo much still isn\u2019t understood, so as soon as we got her brain data in, I got very excited,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Audrey\u2019s hearing is normal, but she and about 25 other healthy babies have now given researchers a baseline to measure how hearing and language develop in the first year of life, compared to infants with hearing impairment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just haven\u2019t had that before,\u201d says Paranawithana, an engineer and PhD student at Monash. \u201cAnd we hope this will be a cheaper, easier way of getting complex data on what babies can hear [for diagnosis] too, because obviously, they can\u2019t tell us.\u201d<\/p>\n All newborns are screened for hearing problems at birth, and the \u201cbionic ear\u201d or multichannel cochlear implant pioneered by the Bionics Institute\u2019s founder Graeme Clark in the 1970s, now helps people all over the world understand speech.<\/p>\n But fine-tuning treatment to a child\u2019s needs still relies on months and months of observations by clinicians.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s months too long for a baby whose brain is developing so fast,\u201d says lead researcher at the institute Professor Colette McKay.<\/p>\n \u201cBabies need to hear speech to learn to speak \u2026 We don\u2019t have a way right now to get that complex [hearing] data easily. So we\u2019re really guessing what\u2019ll help until we can fine-tune through follow-ups with the child.\u201d<\/p>\n There has been a string of scandals over bungled cochlear implants in recent years, including at hospitals in Adelaide and Townsville, where some children were left with ongoing speech development problems.<\/p>\n Ishara Paranawithana\u2019s PHD work mapped infant brains to understand how normal hearing develops.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Monash University\/Bionics Institute <\/cite><\/p>\n For the past few years, McKay has been developing the new method of using light to measure infant hearing, through a device known as the EarGenie, that\u2019s now undergoing clinical trials.<\/p>\n Just as a pulse oximeter transmits light through the skin of a fingertip to measure blood oxygen levels, the testing helmet lights up neurons at work in different areas of the brain, to map function.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kid-friendly, it\u2019s safe,\u201d says Paranawithana, who admits he found even more neural activity than he expected during his study.<\/p>\n Scientists can even tell if babies can differentiate between different sounds, such as \u201cMama\u201d versus \u201cDada\u201d.<\/p>\n Testing is easiest on newborns, who are prone to falling asleep in the lab, laughs McKay.<\/p>\n The end game, she says, is making sure that all kids born with hearing loss aren\u2019t left behind their peers in language development.<\/p>\n But elsewhere in the institute, there\u2019s work on the holy grail \u2013 the world\u2019s first cure for deafness \u2013 as researchers look to harness nanotechnology to deliver drugs designed to repair cells of the inner ear.<\/p>\n Paranawithana smiles: \u201cThis what happens when engineers and medical [scientists] get together.\u201d<\/p>\n Liam Mannix\u2019s Examine newsletter explains and analyses science with a rigorous focus on the evidence. <\/i><\/b>Sign up to get it each week<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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