NICOTINE patches could someday be used to treat hearing disorders, says a
researcher who has found that the drug seems to make the brain process sounds
more efficiently.
Studies into cigarette smoking and hearing have produced contradictory
results. Some suggest that chronic smoking improves auditory sensitivity, while
several show it impairs sound processing. Others have found no effect at all. So
Ashley Harkrider at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville decided to study
nicotine separately from the thousands of other compounds in cigarette
smoke.
She took 20 non-smoking volunteers and gave them a low dose of nicotine via a
patch.…
