Why is long-term hearing loss leading to auditory deprivation?

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In each of our ears, there are approximately 18,000 tiny hair cells, which are a vital part of the auditory system. These hair cells convert sound signals coming from the outside into electrical signals, and then send them to the brain, where the brain converts them into sounds we can recognize. From this, we officially heard the sound.

However, this auditory hair cell is actually very fragile. It is very sensitive to sounds, especially loud sounds. It is easily damaged or died under the stimulation of these sounds. If you wear headphones for long periods of time and play loud music or other sounds, your hair cells can easily be "noised to death."

Why is long-term hearing loss leading to auditory deprivation?


Hearing is a brain activity. Sound is converted into nerve electrical impulses in the inner ear and transmitted through the auditory nerve to the brain, which interprets the meaning of the sound.

When the amount of sound entering the brain decreases, the brain changes the way it operates. A 2014 study showed that even with mild hearing loss, areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing are "reassigned" to visual processing. In addition, other negative changes may occur in the brain, making it more difficult for the brain to process sound after wearing a hearing aid than when hearing normally.


People with mild hearing loss have 25-40% difficulty in understanding speech information. Sounds that are not heard will be forgotten by the brain. If you don’t choose Hearing Aids until you are in the late stages of hearing loss, your brain will be overstimulated by sudden sounds and overwhelmed. Therefore, patients may feel very uncomfortable and dissatisfied in the early stages of wearing hearing aids.

If you suffer from hearing loss for too long without intervention, the parts of the brain responsible for auditory processing will be "reassigned" to other functions, such as vision. This makes it more difficult to treat hearing loss, such as wearing hearing aids.

Audiologists call the above-mentioned phenomenon of "letting hearing loss go, the brain is redistributed, and auditory discrimination becomes worse and worse" as "use it or lose it", which is also It’s a word that professional hearing aids often mention when introducing hearing-impaired people.

  In one sentence, the longer the hearing loss lasts, the harder it is for the brain to understand and process sound information.


What the vernacular means is that you may be able to "hear" someone else's voice, but it's hard for your brain to understand what they're saying. Some people even feel that their cognitive abilities have declined when they discover that they have hearing loss.


Through the calculation of "prescription amplification" of appropriate hearing aids, hearing aids can help people with hearing loss restore or compensate for their ability to hear. volume range, and can avoid the problem of auditory deprivation caused by long-term hearing loss. Other related studies have confirmed that the use of auditory aids can reduce communication barriers and improve the quality of life for both the patient himself and those close to him.

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