• INCLUSION CRITERIA:

It is anticipated that, in most cases, patients will be recruited whose disorders do not appear to be syndromic (i.e. are not associated with extra-auditory or extra-vestibular features).

We seek subjects who are members of large families with multiple individuals affected with a hearing disorder. Sporadic cases will occasionally be included when the phenotype has features suggestive of mutations in one or a few particular candidate genes, since autosomal or X-linked recessive inheritance can appear to be sporadic.

If there is evidence of genetic homogeneity, small families can be pooled for linkage analysis, or a combination of large and small families can be pooled.

Subjects of any ethnic background, gender, age, sexual orientation, or health status will be included.

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

Patients will be excluded when their hearing or vestibular dysfunction are known to be caused by a nongenetic etiology such as trauma, infection, metabolic or immunologic disorders, or exposure to ototoxic agents such as noise or aminoglycoside antibiotics.