There has been a lot of news lately—in the hearing health space—that we want to highlight, from dementia research to ways to alleviate motion sickness and improve speech comprehension.

The brain may help regulate the ear’s sensitivity to sound and compensate for hearing loss by sending signals to the cochlea, a structure in the inner ear. This discovery could pave the way for new treatments for challenging hearing disorders such as hyperacusis and tinnitus.

As a clinician and university professor, I’ve worked with hundreds of people who hesitated to seek help—not because they couldn’t afford it, or didn’t have access to care, but because doing so meant admitting something they weren’t ready to accept: that something fundamental had changed.

This indicates an extended timeline of auditory development in children, which has exciting scientific and clinical implications.