Hearing Health Blog Archive
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Fifty percent of maximum volume on a power-hungry headphone can be quite gentle. Fifty percent on a sensitive pair of earbuds, plugged into a strong source, can be loud enough to permanently harm hearing.
Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) is very pleased to announce the addition of four new members to our Board of Directors: Andreas H. Eckhard, M.D., Steven D. Rauch, M.D., Konstantina Stankovic, M.D., Ph.D., FACS, and Daniel J. Tollin, Ph.D.
A person becomes hard of hearing, caregivers and families start raising their voices, no one likes shouting at another person, the conversations decline.
A simple, universal visual warning system (like a red, yellow, or green noise-level indicator at a concert venue, racetrack, or theme park) instantly conveys danger, warning, or safety to people of all ages. Combined with access to basic foam earplugs and insertion instructions, a simple prompt can transform behavior.
Hearing loss began affecting how I saw myself. There is a word in Chinese that describes how I felt: 自卑 (zìbēi), a feeling of insecurity and inferiority that makes you shrink yourself around other people.
Our Emerging Research Grants program is the leading seed funding opportunity for early stage researchers. ERG also includes Expanded and Focused Discovery Awards, which are grant opportunities in specific topics (such as central auditory processing disorder, hyperacusis, Ménière’s disease, and tinnitus) that are open to eligible investigators at any career stage.
Otoaging is a new word I coined to describe both the premature aging of cochlear hair cells and synapses caused by noise, and the end result, hearing loss in old age. I was inspired by the term photoaging, used by dermatologists to describe the premature aging of the skin by sun.
In addition to recent or current grantees, to underscore the lasting implications that basic science research can hold, scientists whose funding was a decade—or decades—ago cite HHF in new papers stemming from their grants.
This study provides evidence that TECTB is a novel human deafness gene. In addition, it reveals a gene–environment interaction in which the variant sensitizes the cochlea to noise trauma, leading to long‐term functional consequences.
In the aging model, we explored neuronal alterations in the auditory brainstem and reproduced changes observed in aged gerbils. These results suggest that the model can help identify possible neural explanations for changes in hearing test results.
If irony were for sale, we’d all be rich. We pay premium prices to sit in dining rooms specifically to communicate, yet the room itself makes communication nearly impossible.
The resulting SGN-like neurons matched the appearance, molecular structure, electrical behavior, and functional characteristics of SGN cells in vivo.
The key is to introduce myself as usual and let people get to know my personality first. If I miss something during the conversation, I simply let them know: “Hey, I have hearing loss, do you mind saying that again?”
A review of recent Department of Justice resolutions shows a clear trend: Communication access failures now outnumber physical accessibility complaints.
Wear well-fitted protection, create distance from loudspeakers, take quiet breaks, and limit additional noise afterward.
Our results demonstrate that age-related changes in use of acoustic cues may begin in middle age.
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I don’t always think my teammates understand that I have hearing loss. It’s because hearing loss is invisible. But I live with it every moment.
This control experiment shows that the hearing organ must be intact for sound to produce pain-related behavior. This may seem obvious, but it’s important to understand that the pain you experience does not come only from your eardrum or outer ear.
Partial silence/Hours in thought and talk/My dog listened and understood/Time in hours on the old back porch/I was in my own safe, social world.
Patients who started with low wear time and increased it by six months did just as well at one year as those who wore their processor consistently from the start. Patients whose use declined did measurably worse. A slow start is not a verdict.
What changed things was a program almost nobody talks about: state vocational rehabilitation. Every state has a version of this department, just under a different name. The idea behind all of them is the same: If a disability is standing between you and a job, the state will help remove it. Hearing loss counts. Hearing aids count.
Overall our findings suggest that differences in speech-in-noise ability may reflect a combination of early auditory processing, attention, and how strongly the brain represents target speech compared with background noise.
Cerumen (earwax) moves like a conveyor belt, removing the debris laterally and outward toward the opening of the ear canal where it flakes off.
When performing, I usually play and sing with a small amplifier, using a microphone for vocals, a jazz banjo, or a vintage arch-top guitar with a pickup. The combination of Ménière’s and tinnitus creates practical challenges onstage.
Diagnosed with central auditory processing disorder as a child, this newly graduated actress-model plans to use her degree in speech-language pathology and audiology to improve outcomes for fellow CAPD patients.
Although it’s one of our most important connections to the world around us, most people don’t routinely monitor changes in their hearing, track exposure to excessive noise, or include hearing screenings as part of their regular preventative care.
With support from an R21 grant from the NIH, Hui Hong, Ph.D., will investigate how the auditory efferent system changes after noise-induced hearing loss and whether those changes help or hinder recovery.
Optical coherence tomography promises to capture functional biology in real time, which could prove revolutionary for better understanding complex hearing disorders.