Under a law being prepared in the US, all newborn babies will have to be screened for defective hearing with a device that picks up sounds that emanate from their ears. Brenda Lonsbury-Martin, director of research at the University of Miami Ear Institute, told the AAAS meeting that the test could ensure that children with serious hearing difficulties do not miss out on the first vital years of educationThe new screening test is quick and simple to perform, and can identify the degree of impairment at all audible frequencies. The device needed to carry it out is relatively cheap at about $10 000, said Lonsbury-Martin.The test is based on an effect known as "otoacoustic emission," which was first detected by a British physicist, Dave Kemp. In 1979, Kemp found that a few microseconds after sound enters a healthy ear, the same sound—amplified up to 10 times—can be detected emanating from the ear. If the ear is defective, the signal is not as strong.The device used for the test looks like a hearing aid. As well as generating sounds, it picks up and records the emissions from the inner ear that are produced in response.
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