One of the most common complaints hearing professionals hear is that patients say they can hear but have difficulty understanding. Those experiencing hearing losses are affected not just by their ears but also by their brain, which is responsible for transforming sounds into words.
Those experiencing hearing loss are affected by their ears and their brain, which is responsible for transforming sounds into words. A hearing loss can be mild, moderate, severe, or profound.
It is common for older adults, especially those over the age of 50, to have mild-to-moderate hearing loss, especially high-pitched sounds that are difficult to hear. Symptoms of this condition include difficulty understanding words, especially when the environment is noisy.
But some people who may believe that they suffer from hearing loss actually suffer from a rare condition: auditory neuropathy.
What is Auditory Neuropathy?
Auditory neuropathy patients can hear but do not understand sounds. A timing deficit is related to their difficulties, which indicates the importance of neural encoding for understanding speech. Humans are unique in being able to understand speech.
Even though speech understanding is essential, its neural mechanisms are largely unknown. It remains unknown how signaling takes place in the auditory pathways of animals that cannot understand speech normally compared to what is known about speech understanding in humans.
Hearing deficits and cognitive impairment are minimal in patients with auditory neuropathy. However, they have difficulty understanding speech. Hearing soft sounds, discriminating pitches at high frequencies, and using interaural intensity differences and spectral cues to localize sounds are difficult for patients with auditory neuropathy.
Instead of these common deficits, patients with auditory neuropathy suffer from deficits associated with damage to the cochlea. Hearing aids do not help improve this problem, unlike intensity-related issues when a patient has auditory neuropathy.
How Does Auditory Neuropathy Affect Hearing?
Auditory neuropathy affects the inner ear and is characterized by detecting sound but not the ability to transmit it to the brain. From infancy to adulthood, anyone can be affected. Auditory neuropathies don’t affect many people, but evidence suggests that hearing loss and deafness are linked to auditory neuropathies.
Hearing loss caused by audiopathy neuropathy is rare. In this case, nerve impulse disruption traveling from the inner ear to the brain causes the problem, although the cause remains unknown, and a cure is unavailable. The hearing loss usually affects both ears, and it can range from mild to severe.
What Causes Auditory Neuropathy?
A variety of factors causes auditory neuropathy. Damaged hair found in the ear may play a role in some cases, as these cells carry sound information to the brain. Alternatively, damage to the auditory nerves, which transmit sound information to the brain from the inner hair cells, may be at fault.
Inner ear vibrations are amplified by outer hair cells entering the middle ear. A normal hearing system converts vibrations caused by sound into electrical signals that travel through the nervous system and to the brain, where they are interpreted as sound.
Outer hair cells appear to function normally, even though they are more sensitive to damage than inner hair cells. In people with auditory neuropathy, outer hair cells are not damaged as frequently as inner hair cells are.
Some families have a history of hearing loss, and researchers have found genetic mutations that make it difficult for the ear to transmit sound information to the brain in some cases. The inheritance of mutated genes also causes auditory neuropathy.
Scientists are investigating how mutant genes are inherited and how they affect the auditory system. Mutant genes can cause neuropathies associated with hearing loss. According to research, cochlear implants may benefit some people with auditory neuropathy, but not all. Researchers are also investigating why some people with auditory neuropathy benefit from cochlear implants.
If you or a loved one believes you may have hearing loss or auditory neuropathy, it is crucial to seek help immediately. Prolonging any treatment could have a significantly detrimental effect on your hearing loss. If you live in the Las Vegas area, visit Hearing Associates of Las Vegas to learn how to get back on track towards healthy hearing.
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