Serum Prestin Level May Increase Following Music Exposure That Induces Temporary Threshold Shifts: A Pilot Study.
Eleftheria Iliadou, Christopher J Plack, Konstantinos Pastiadis and 1 others
PMID 38488693WHAT IT FOUND
Brief exposure to loud pop music caused temporary hearing threshold shifts in 14 adults.
Serum prestin levels showed a non-significant upward trend after exposure. Baseline prestin levels predicted the size of the threshold shift, but the link to blood markers remains unproven.
Key findings
01All participants experienced temporary hearing threshold shifts and reduced otoacoustic emissions after music exposure, confirming the stimulus caused temporary cochlear dysfunction.
02Serum prestin levels increased after exposure but did not reach statistical significance after correction for multiple comparisons, meaning the blood marker change is currently only a trend.
03Higher baseline serum prestin levels were associated with smaller temporary threshold shifts at 6 kHz, suggesting a potential link between the biomarker and susceptibility to noise-induced hearing changes.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was very small (14 participants), which reduced statistical power and likely contributed to the non-significant findings for prestin. The study was underpowered compared to the pre-registered plan, which calculated a need for 27 participants. Participants were mainly young adults, so results may not generalize to older populations where prestin levels naturally decline. The primary finding regarding prestin change was non-significant after correction, and the predictive value of baseline prestin is an exploratory post-hoc analysis.
Declared interests
The research was funded by the Special Account of Research Grants of the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens. One author received support from the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre and the Medical Research Council, UK. No commercial conflicts of interest are reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the observed rise in serum prestin as a proven biological response to music exposure. The change was not statistically significant after correcting for multiple comparisons, and the study was underpowered. The finding that baseline prestin predicts hearing loss susceptibility is exploratory and requires larger studies to confirm.