How long does it take for your brain to realize you have started to wear a hearing aid?
—Eugene Rice, via e-mail
Kelly Tremblay, associate professor of speech and hearing sciences at the University of Washington, responds: The answer is “instantly.” The brain is able to detect amplified sounds immediately after the insertion of a hearing aid, as long as the damage is not too significant.
Normally when sound enters the ear, acoustic information is relayed from the ear to the brain via nerve cells, called neurons. As the sound gets louder, more neurons fire simultaneously, which in turn allows the brain to detect the change in volume.
A hearing aid acts as a microphone, magnifying sounds that enter the ear. Hearing aids are mostly used in people who suffer from hearing loss because of damage to hair cells, the small sensory cells in the inner ear. Healthy hair cells can detect the magnified sounds from a hearing aid and convert them into neural signals. But the greater the damage to a person’s hair cells, the more severe the hearing loss and the more the hearing aid will need to make up the difference.
Hearing aids are able to help millions of people decipher sounds they could not access before, but these devices do not help everyone to the same degree. That is because although hearing aids make sounds louder, they do not repair or compensate for the damage that has taken place in the ear and the brain. As a result, hearing aids help the signals reach the brain, but the brain may not be able to process the signals, making the hearing aid less effective.
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11 Comments
Add CommentHow long does it take for your brain to realize that "have started wearing a hearing aid" is better grammar than "have started to wear a hearing aid"??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDetection is instantanious but comprehension of sound detail may take some time while the brain remaps the sounds.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis may be more or less exagerated depending on how long the hearing issue has been untreated.
THe sound is available in amplified form but dammeged parts of teh spectrum will never be available even with a hearing aid.
Un less propely chosen, a hearing aid can make some hearing issues much worse.
Darn! I had guessed a few weeks! I thought the article would explain how the brain initially refuses to process the amplified signals, or something. SA must think their readership are all suckers for a catchy title! I'm just amazed!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this(ahem) speaking as one who wears a hearing aid, I wonder if the person is asking a different question--how long before the hearing aid-modified sounds seem normal. When I remove my hearing aids, I feel somewhat as if I have a pillow over my ears for maybe three seconds, then the feeling of normalcy returns. When I put the hearing aids in, everything sounds a bit tinny and I seem to hear background static for about the same length of time. Then everything sounds normal. Of course I'm a sample of 1. So, questioner: if that's how long it takes for you too, we must both be normal, eh?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks for your informative comment - more informative than the article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDr.Milton Erickson performed experiments where he artfully inhibited a select sensory modality (hearing in my case) to the intent of observing natural compensation of the human sensory system set adaptive methods. I began with normal hearing and soon noticed a functional deficit I tried to manage as best I could. I was not conscious of the influence of the doctor to inhibit my cognitive function. I became more visually aware and expanded the use of visuals to compensate for the information deficit experienced in the hearing 'loss'. I had no actual physical damage, but in time my biology DID express 'damage' as the physical system became degraded due to impeded functionality. After three decades I developed a cascading neurological condition due to the forced cognitive impediment. I now use hearing aids, but their presence as sound sources confuse my cognitive response because the neurological pathways are forced to process an odd dual information flow. One information flow is in the repressed range and the other is in the 'conscious' range. An odd stuttering effect is induced and induces a kind of sensory dissociation effect. This condition is not presently under review by any clinician/researcher. Since the death of Dr. Erickson in Scottsdale, Arizona, no one has stepped up to secure his ongoing projects/programs. I was left to languish at the curb with my peculiar cognitive deformities and the concomitant life altering damages. I need a specialist in Tort claims who can work probono.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDr. Erickson first worked as a researcher for the US Army and then for other federal agencies. He managed research projects for DARPA at the time of his death.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDr. Erickson was the founder of the society for professional hypnotists.
This condition was later documented by Dr. Stubblefield, Chair Dept. Audiology, Northern Arizona University, when I approached him as a graduate student seeking help to resolve hearing deficit anomalies noted by professors in classes I attended on campus. He spoke with Dr. Erickson after attending a seminar in Phoenix where Erickson described some of the subject responses I exhibited during audiology testing by Stubblefield. I received a report from Stubblefield a letter detailing his interaction with Erickson about my status as a subject in on-going federally funded research. Some of the program results became pertinent to design of virtual reality systems human interface devices under development by DARPA.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour auditory nerve adjusts automatically to the intensity of sound stimulation. When you remove your device, your nerves 'reduce' the response and this is the 'muffled' sensation you experience until your auditory nerve again adjusts to the reduced sound stimulation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt takes the <a href= "http://memoryincreaser.com">mind and memory</a> a while to process the sound detail. It need time to remap the sounds it hears. This of course depends on the length of hearing loss.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder if <a href="http://www.emeryhearingcenters.com/">Phoenix hearing aids</a> does cochlear implants?
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