The hearing mechanism is an amazing and exquisitely complicated system. The process of hearing is dependent on the eardrum and middle ear bones, the hearing organ or cochlea, the nervous system and the brain. To complicate matters even more, the system is designed for two inputs: one from the left side and one from the right side. The two inputs then have to merge an organized signal into different areas of the brain. It is a wonder that we are able to understand speech at all!
This process takes long-term practice and ongoing exercise. A baby is learning how to use the auditory system even before birth. Babies hear many sounds in the mother’s uterus and continue this “exercise” after they are born. Studies have been conducted to learn about children’s and adult’s auditory processing when they are not able to hear well. The consensus is the same for all populations. If you are unable to stimulate the hearing mechanism consistently, then the ability of the brain to use the information is significantly compromised. The level of compromise is dependent on the length of time without complete stimulation and the type of damage to the auditory areas.
The entire auditory system must be “exercised” to maintain the necessary nerve pathway speed, discrimination and sensitivity for successful hearing, especially in a noisy situation. You may understand this better if you think of the way you exercise your body to maintain strength. If you stop working out, your muscles are unable to provide the support they once did. When you start exercising again, depending on how long you allowed the muscles to weaken, your routine may take quite a while to equal what you used to be able to do, and in some cases you will not be able to reach your previous capacity.
Studies demonstrate this dilemma in people who have hearing loss in both ears but choose to wear only one hearing aid. The unaided ear suffers auditory deprivation. This is what the “Use it or Lose it” phenomenon refers to. People who “exercise” their hearing mechanism as early as possible in a balanced and consistent manner do much better at understanding speech in a noisy environment than individuals who either wait until the hearing loss is a significant impairment or wear only one hearing aid. For instance, if twin men at age 40 suffer from noise-induced hearing loss and only one of the twins decides to purchase and wear two hearing aids, the outcome at age 60 will be very different. The man who wore hearing aids will be significantly more successful understanding speech in a noisy situation than his brother who puts on his first pair of hearing aids at age 60. This clarity difference will not resolve because the first brother has an additional 20 years of hearing stimulation than the other brother. Their speech in noise test scores will remain different.
When people first begin to wear hearing aids, they may experience discomfort or feel that sounds are not natural because the system (cochlea, nerve pathways and brain) is not accustomed to being stimulated in that manner. The sudden change or increase in signals traveling through the auditory mechanism is received easily by some people and with great difficulty by other people. The fine tuning of the hearing aid to match the needs of the new hearing aid wearer is where the expertise of the audiologist becomes a huge factor in the success or failure of hearing aid use.
It is not wise to wait for hearing aids until you can no longer communicate easily. Keep your brain stimulated and you will have a much better outcome in the social settings that are so important to us all! FBN
Written by Karon Lynn