Hearing Health Blog Archive
While working in the clinic I realized how much I loved creating resources for patients—brochures, handouts, visual guides—mostly because I couldn’t find what I wanted online.
Digital hearing tools can act as allies to reduce isolation. Technology has adapted to today’s needs and can help people struggling with hearing loss regain and retain their social connections.
On this Veterans Day and every day, Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) thanks our U.S. service members and veterans for their sacrifices. This group is disproportionately at risk for hearing damage, but earlier this year changes to how tinnitus is rated as a compensable disability were proposed.
Our partner Hyperacusis Research recently hosted a webinar that highlighted both the human impact of hyperacusis—pain triggered by everyday sounds—and the scientific progress being made to understand and treat it.
There was a lot of confusion in the mid-’80s between hearing and understanding. I was 14 years old so hearing loss was the furthest thing from my mind and nothing my parents thought of either. I could hear but I had trouble understanding what I heard.
An audiologist shares the science behind Halloween’s eeriest noises.
What moved me most was not just the science. It was the joy. I will never forget an older man who heard his grandson’s voice clearly for the first time in years.
My area of study is auditory neuroscience, and I’m especially passionate about how neuroscience can reveal the underlying mechanisms behind why hearing outcomes vary so much from person to person.
Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) is currently accepting applications for 2026–2027 awards through our Emerging Research Grants program.
Many single-sided deafness patients perform perfectly on standard speech-in-quiet tests due to their healthy ear, a “ceiling effect” that masks the real-world challenges they face. We propose using more sensitive metrics that assess sound quality and music perception.
As one who inhabits the worlds of both hearing and deafness, I am amazed by what you likely take for granted—the gift of hearing. And I experience the benefits, the misfortunes, and the humor of not hearing.
Our mission to fund innovative, groundbreaking hearing and balance science is only possible because of you. We are grateful for the support of our community.
The legacy gift from the late Shirley Jean Lane launches the next phase for HHF’s planned giving efforts: a new matching challenge to inspire legacy commitments from our community.
Congratulations to the 14 scientists awarded Emerging Research Grants for 2026.
Whether you’re donating through your IRA, gifting appreciated stock, or using a donor-advised fund, your contribution to Hearing Health Foundation can make a meaningful difference.
Cochlear implants work differently from hearing aids. Instead of making sounds louder, they bypass the damaged parts of the inner ear and send signals directly to the brain, allowing individuals to perceive sound more clearly.
As we observe World Alzheimer’s Month each September, it’s a timely reminder that protecting our brain health starts long before memory problems arise.
This new computer model can serve as the bedrock not only to better understand how the middle ear vibrates during bone conduction but also to develop new diagnostics for middle ear conditions and inform the design of novel hearing devices.
Looking back over each grade when I felt embarrassed, I wish I could have told myself that even when people ask questions about the FM, by the next day they have usually forgotten about it. Most of the time I cared more than other people did.
Cochlear implants were never on our radar, and the topic arose what felt like out of the blue while talking to his audiologist who said hearing aids could no longer improve his ability to better understand speech.
There’s a lot of overlap between managing tinnitus and dealing with the challenges of aging. Socializing, paying active attention, learning new things, and physical activity are all things that can help with both.
Hearing Restoration Project member and Emerging Research Grants scientist Tatjana Piotrowski, Ph.D., and team show that the transcription factor prdm1a plays a key role in determining hair cell fate in the zebrafish lateral line.
Even within the d/Deaf and hard of hearing umbrella, our access needs and identities vary widely. That in-between space can feel like nowhere—not “hearing enough” for the hearing world, not “Deaf enough” for Deaf spaces.
Because the very small blood vessels in the inner ear can be narrowed by the presence of an increase in blood glucose, the function of the inner ear hair cells can be affected. The first symptom might be tinnitus or an inability to hear words clearly.
My focus is studying pathologies following noise overexposure. This includes noise-induced hearing loss and pain hyperacusis. I specifically look at how the immune system interacts with the neurons of the ear after noise.
Living without the sense of hearing may bring barriers, but it does not mean living without independence or success. Our role, as people with typical hearing, is to listen, support, and work to improve the systems that are built around us.
This study shows that a single variant in the Foxg1 gene can affect how the brain processes sounds and lead to a heightened sensitivity to noise.
At the time of his death, Hudspeth was pursuing new approaches to restoring hearing through hair cell regeneration, and his lab had recently published work demonstrating the first method for keeping a mammalian cochlea alive outside of the body—an innovation that will provide future researchers with an unprecedented means for studying the cochlea’s live biomechanics.
New survey results present a close look at why people do—and don’t—use hearing aids.