Can you hear conversations but struggle to understand?

How Hearing Works

The process of binaural hearing is a sophisticated one and utilizes three parts of the ear: the outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear. When there is an external stimulus of sound, the outer ear picks up this sound as wave. The sound wave moves from the outer ear, through the ear canal, and into the middle ear, where it is amplified and turned into a vibration. The vibrations move into the inner ear where they are picked up by the tiny inner ear hair cells, which transform this vibration into a neural signal sent to the brain. The neural pathways are honed after years of transmission and recognizing sound.

As such, many hearing specialists and researchers say that it is the brain that hears, not the ears. We recognize sounds, such as a door slamming, a dog barking, or a steak on the cast iron griddle because of years of cataloguing by the brain, from these neural signals.

When the Brain Cannot “Hear”

With hearing loss, the sounds we receive from our environment are no longer coming in as clearly. Conductive hearing loss, which affects the outer and middle ear, makes it difficult for our ears to receive sounds; as a result, the original stimulus is not as clear as it could be and by the time it reaches the brain, it may be muddled.

Sensorineural hearing loss, which occurs with the damage of inner ear hair cells that do not regenerate, affects the neural signals sent to the brain. When inner ear hair cells die, they no longer translate the vibrations of sound waves to the brain as neural signals to be registered as sound.

In both cases, when these signals and pathways do not function properly, they come into disrepair. When they are not used regularly, they begin to fade – which eventually leads to difficulty hearing and recognizing sounds.

Speech Recognition

One of the early signs of hearing loss is a struggle with speech recognition. You may find yourself mishearing what people say – whether it is a word or a sentence. It may be that you’ve confused one word with another. You may find yourself asking people, “What?” and to repeat themselves. Similarly, if you are watching a performance or film, you may not follow or understand what the characters are saying. Certain degrees of hearing loss affect the frequency at which you can hear – and as a result, the voices of women and children may prove difficult to understand. If you are in a busy restaurant with dining companions, you may have difficulty hearing multiple speakers at once against the backdrop of the noise around you. Speech recognition may prove more difficult in certain situations, especially when there are other competing noises.

Localization and Cognitive Function

Normal binaural hearing helps to situate us within our environment. We can determine where certain things are happening by the distance of the sound. When hearing loss occurs, this may prove difficult and thus increase safety risks. Alarms and sirens in traffic may not register accurately for us. As a result, hearing loss has been linked to increased rates of hospitalizations and falls.

At the same time, the lack of use of our neural pathways coupled with our brain overcompensating for muddled signals, may led to an increased cognitive load, which researchers have potentially linked to an increased risk for dementia.

If you find that you are hearing sounds, but having difficulty understand, schedule an appointment for a hearing evaluation with us today. Early treatment of hearing loss exponentially increases your health and well-being.