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The letter is about a community of scientists who have personally experienced the barriers imposed by hearing loss. Community represents an alternative model of distributed academic peer networking that has grown and evolved over the past 25 years. This model has enabled members to overcome personal and professional barriers while promoting the inclusion of numerous D/HH scientists at all levels of biomedical research.

This study investigated whether a short intensive psychophysical auditory training program is associated with speech perception benefits and changes in cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) in adult cochlear implant (CI) users. Ten adult implant recipients trained approximately 7 hours on psychophysical tasks (Gap-in-Noise Detection, Frequency Discrimination, Spectral Rippled Noise [SRN], Iterated Rippled Noise, Temporal Modulation). Speech performance was assessed before and after training using Lexical Neighborhood Test (LNT) words in quiet and in eight-speaker babble. CAEPs evoked by a natural speech stimulus /baba/ with varying syllable stress were assessed pre- and post-training, in quiet and in noise. SRN psychophysical thresholds showed a significant improvement (78% on average) over the training period, but performance on other psychophysical tasks did not change. LNT scores in noise improved significantly post-training by 11% on average compared with three pretraining baseline measures. N1P2 amplitude changed post-training for /baba/ in quiet (p = 0.005, visit 3 pretraining versus visit 4 post-training). CAEP changes did not correlate with behavioral measures. CI recipients' clinical records indicated a plateau in speech perception performance prior to participation in the study. A short period of intensive psychophysical training produced small but significant gains in speech perception in noise and spectral discrimination ability. There remain questions about the most appropriate type of training and the duration or dosage of training that provides the most robust outcomes for adults with CIs.

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Selective collapse is a term that the late Dr. Thompson and I first used to denote the behavior of involved parts of the lung under partial pneumothorax, spontaneous or artificial. Further study by physical signs, necropsy, and especially by stereoroentgenograms, showed the same behavior of inflamed or irritated regions of the lung in all cases of tuberculosis. It constitutes a general principle, the knowledge of which not only explains the action of partial pneumothorax, but is of value in the general treatment of tuberculosis. The precise explanation has not been conclusively demonstrated. A few plausible theories are discussed in the article on selective collapse in our monograph. 1 Sewall 2 cites references to a discussion of the action of this principle in bronchial irritation and obstruction nearly a hundred years ago. The principle of selective collapse is manifested in a series of phenomena that may be described thus: ( a ) If