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.
Brain Response Test Reveals Hearing Clarity
Babies are too young to do hearing tests until 8 to 10 months of age, and at such young ages, tracking brain waves to sounds is the only reliable way to assess hearing.
Age-Related Hearing Loss and Brainwave Changes
Brain oscillations (brainwaves) are associated with specific cognitive and sensory processes. How age-related hearing loss (presbycusis) alters the oscillations is unclear. Age-related speech recognition problems can be caused by changes in neurotransmission (chemical messaging between nerve cells) and temporal processing (the perception of sound within a defined time frame).