Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Tinnitus
Published in Alexander R. Toftness, Incredible Consequences of Brain Injury, 2023
Tinnitus is often thought of as ringing in the ears that occurs after hearing loud noises. However, tinnitus can be caused by a variety of things (e.g., loud noise, infections, brain tumors, a misaligned jaw, etc.) and may take a variety of phantom noise-forms. In an old but fascinating collection of tinnitus noise descriptions, one doctor wrote that the noise may resemble a “bee humming; noise of shell; horse out of breath, puffing; thumping noise; continual beating; crackling sounds in the head … furnace blowing; constant hammering; rushing water … railway whistling; distant thunder; chirping of birds; kettle boiling; waterfall; mill wheel; music; bells” (Jones et al., 1890, p. 668). Thus, pitch, volume, and annoyingness can all vary, with rare forms of tinnitus even resembling low voices or music. You know how annoying it is to be able to hear someone speaking, but to not be able to hear exactly what they are saying? Now imagine that happening all of the time, inside of your brain. There are milder forms of tinnitus from which you generally recover in short order and, as we will see, those cases are the lucky ones. Here, in this particular book, we will be discussing the more severe sort of tinnitus—that is, haunting noise that repeats over and over and over.
Communication in the context of older age
Published in Rebecca Allwood, Working with Communication and Swallowing Difficulties in Older Adults, 2022
Presbyacusis refers to the normal loss of hearing that is associated with ageing. This is a sensorineural hearing loss and occurs along a spectrum of severity but can lead to complete functional bilateral hearing loss. There are multiple factors involved in the severity of the hearing loss, including genetic predisposition and amount of exposure to very loud noise.
Ear, Nose and Throat
Published in Kristen Davies, Shadaba Ahmed, Core Conditions for Medical and Surgical Finals, 2020
Hearing loss is the most common symptom of ear disease and can occur with varying severity. It can be classified as either conductive (where there is a problem of the conductive system of the external or middle ear) or sensorineural (where there is a problem of the cochlear or auditory pathway) or a combination of both.
The effect of cochlear implant age and duration of intervention on ESRT in children with cochlear implant
Published in Cochlear Implants International, 2023
Yashika Tyagi, Indranil Chatterjee
Cochlear implant is an implanted electronic hearing device, developed to produce efficient hearing sensations to a person with severe to profound nerve deafness by electrically stimulating auditory nerve. Cochlear implants consist of two main constituents, the externally worn microphone, sound processor and the implanted receiver and electrode system, the signals from the external system are delivered to the inner ear and these electric signals stimulate the nerve, which then sends a signal to the brain. New implant devices have a magnet that grasps the external structure in place next to the implanted internal system. The external component of the device may be worn exclusively at the back of the ear or its constituents may be worn in a belt pouch, pocket, or harness. The cochlear implant mimics natural hearing, where sound generates an electric current that excites the auditory nerve.
The association of sex steroid hormone concentrations with hearing loss: a cross-sectional study
Published in Acta Oto-Laryngologica, 2023
Huifen Yang, Jing Li, Xinyuan Sun, Wangwei Li, Yuan Wang, Caiqin Huang
Hearing loss is a major public health problem that contributes to decreased quality of life. In the matter of acquired hearing loss, there are several risk factors for hearing loss, including age, BMI, drugs, noise exposure, infections, nutrition, trauma and so on [7]. Hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipemia were also shown to increase the risk of hearing loss [8–10]. Our study also demonstrated that hearing loss was significantly related to age, BMI, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipemia and noise exposure. This means the participants enrolled in this study are representative. Additionally, the prevalence rate of hearing loss between males and females was shown to be very different [11]. We thought that sex steroid hormones may be involved in the pathogenesis of hearing loss. Therefore, we explored the relationship between sex steroid hormones and gender.
Emerging therapies for human hearing loss
Published in Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, 2022
Elise Ajay, Niliksha Gunewardene, Rachael Richardson
There are four forms of hearing loss (sensorineural, conductive, combined, and central), but the majority can be classified as sensorineural, with an underlying pathology of the hair cells and/or the spiral ganglion neurons. Sensorineural hearing loss is classified as mild, moderate, severe, profound, or total, and can be caused by any of several pathophysiological mechanisms. The most common cause of hearing loss in adults is age-related hearing loss [2], in which there is gradual degeneration of sensory cells or neural pathways over time. Other factors causing hearing loss include genetics, noise exposure, infection, adverse perinatal conditions (e.g. hypoxia, asphyxia and ischemia), trauma, medications and toxins, and dysfunction of spiral ganglion neurons [1]. Other forms of hearing loss are based on conductive dysfunction, central auditory processing disorders, or a combination of these [1].