Bilingualism leads to greater auditory capacity.

The objective of this article is to investigate the effects of bilingualism on auditory capacity of young adults using a dichotic consonant-vowel (CV) test. Listeners were asked to identify distinct CVs dichotically presented to each ear through headphones. CV identification accuracy in both ears served as a measure of auditory capacity of listeners. Eighty normal hearing participants including 40 bilinguals (23 males and 17 females) and 40 monolinguals (11 males and 29 females) were used as study sample. Members of the bilingual group acquired their second language before entering elementary school. The bilingual listeners had higher mean both-ear-correct scores than did monolingual listeners, indicating a greater auditory capacity in the bilingual group than in the monolingual group. The finding of greater auditory capacity in bilinguals using a task requiring divided attention reflects greater ability to store and recall auditory information in bilinguals. However, the inconsistency of results across studies of bilingual advantages indicates that there is a need for further research in this area using both linguistic and non-linguistic tasks and considering age of acquisition as a possible moderating variable.

No Differences in Hematological Parameters of Fasting and Non-Fasting Pregnant Women Three Months after Ramadan.

Introduction: Ramadan is a holy month in the Islamic calendar. Ramadan fasting is a religious obligation for all healthy adult Muslims. Many pregnant Muslim women choose to fast during Ramadan while others prefer not to do so. The aim of this study was to compare the basic hematological parameters of fasting and non-fasting pregnant women 3 months after Ramadan. Materials and methods: In this case-control study, 3 months after the end of Ramadan, the concentrations of basic hematological parameters in 200 healthy pregnant women with a previous history of fasting (n = 100) and non-fasting (n = 100) were measured. Results: The results showed that the fasters and non-fasters were similar in maternal age, gestational age, gravidity, pre-pregnancy weight, and maternal weight at enrollment. There were no statistically significant differences between the mean of hemoglobin (12.34 ± 1.15 g/dL vs 12.60 ± 1.11 g/dL, p = 0.10) and hematocrit (36.39 ± 2.79 % vs 36.27 ± 3.14 %, p = 0.77) in the fasting and non-fasting groups, respectively. In addition, no statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups when other hematological parameters were compared (p >0.05). Conclusion: Although the immediate effects of Ramadan fasting on hematological parameters are not known, this study concluded that partial fasting during Ramadan from a hematological point of view is of no concern for pregnant women 3 months after the end of Ramadan.

Auditory temporal processing in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.

OBJECTIVE: Auditory temporal processing is the main feature of speech processing ability. Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, despite their normal hearing sensitivity, may present speech recognition disorders. The present study was carried out to evaluate the auditory temporal processing in patients with unilateral TLE. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was carried out on 25 patients with epilepsy: 11 patients with right temporal lobe epilepsy and 14 with left temporal lobe epilepsy with a mean age of 31.1years and 18 control participants with a mean age of 29.4years. The two experimental and control groups were evaluated via gap-in-noise and duration pattern sequence tests. One-way ANOVA was run to analyze the data. RESULTS: The mean of the threshold of the GIN test in the control group was observed to be better than that in participants with LTLE and RTLE. Also, it was observed that the percentage of correct responses on the DPS test in the control group and in participants with RTLE was better than that in participants with LTLE. CONCLUSION: Patients with TLE have difficulties in temporal processing. Difficulties are more significant in patients with LTLE, likely because the left temporal lobe is specialized for the processing of temporal information.