Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/298497
HEALTHCARE ADVOCATES, INDUSTRY LEADERS With more than 40 years of experience, our Healthcare Section offers Healthcare Representation & Counseling, Coding Review and Staff Training. We make it possible for you to focus on patient care, while we tackle the legal obstacles you are faced with on an ongoing basis. WE ARE THE HEALTHCARE SECTION OF KRUGLIAK, WILKINS, GRIFFITHS & DOUGHERTY, CO., L.P.A. 4775 Munson Street N.W. | P.O. Box 36963 | Canton, Ohio 44735 | 330-497-0700 | Fax 330-497-4020 John M. Tucker • Randall C. Hunt • Fred J. Haupt Jason F. Haupt • Laura A. Brady Offices in Canton, Akron, Alliance, New Philadelphia & Sugarcreek KWGD.com T HE NATIONAL INSTITUTES of Health (NIH) has awarded $355,780 to Northeast Ohio Medica l University (NEOMED) in support of Merri Rosen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology in the College of Medicine, for her research on middle ear infections and their impact on childhood hearing loss. Dr. Rosen serves as principal investigator for the grant, which anticipates a total in funding of $1,843,399 for the proposed five-year period. In children, chronic middle ea r infect ions (ot it is media) result in fluctuating hearing loss that can lead to long lasting difficulty in analyzing speech and other sounds. The auditory part of the cerebral cortex appears to be particularly affected, but the links between hearing loss, communication between neurons, and the function of groups of neurons is not known. By establishing these links, Dr. Rosen's research will identify which aspects of sound processing are most at risk from early hearing loss, providing targets for intervention and remediation. The degree to which early hearing loss causes a simple delay in the maturation of the brain, or some novel pathology, is unknown. Understanding the neural basis of impairments resulting from chronic conductive hearing loss is a necessary step toward providing targets for intervention and remediation. "Prior resea rch in t his a rea ha s identified long-lasting problems with perception, but has not thoroughly examined how the brain's analysis of sounds is affected by this type of hearing loss," said Jeffrey Wenstrup, PhD, Chair of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology in the College of Medicine at NEOMED. "Dr. Rosen's research has the potential for major advances in how ear infections and hearing loss are treated during development." Dr. Rosen joined the Department of A natomy a nd Neu robiolog y at NEOMED in 2010. She earned a PhD degree in neurobiolog y from Duke University and Master of Science degree from Brandeis University. Dr. Rosen has also conducted research at Cornell University and New York University. She has spent the past six years researching auditory processing. ■ NEOMED Receives NIH Grant for Childhood Hearing Loss Research 2 0 1 4 M AY/J U N E ■ M D N E W S . CO M ■ MD NEWS Cleveland/Akron/Canton | 1 7