View Tag: ‘hearing loss’
Volume 13
Sensory Neural Asymmetry Associated with a Long-Standing Conductive Component – A Case Study
Dana Libman presents the case of a 67-year-old male who was a drummer since age 5. He had noticed left hearing loss for several years but denied any problems with the right ear. This case presentation raises the question of whether there can be protection from loud noise and music in the presence of a long-standing conductive hearing loss.
To the Brain and Back: Speech Emotion Perception, Hearing Loss, and Hearing Aid Use
This article reviews how hearing loss disrupts the brain’s “dual pathway” network for processing vocal emotions and highlights recent research showing that while hearing aids restore audibility, current processing algorithms fail to improve speech emotion perception due to a breakdown in sensorimotor integration.
Diabetes and Hearing Loss: Implications for Comprehensive Audiological Care
This article reviews research confirming that diabetes significantly doubles the prevalence of hearing loss, often affecting higher frequencies at an earlier age. The authors identify a major knowledge-to-practice gap and call for integrated care pathways that routinely blend audiological monitoring into standard diabetes management to improve long-term patient health outcomes.
The Way I Hear It
Gael Hannan’s new column illustrates the transformative power of consumer events like the Hearing Loss Association of America convention, emphasizing how connecting with a community of peers eliminates stigma, builds confidence, and fosters self-advocacy in a way that technology alone cannot achieve.
Improving the Accessibility and Quality of Hearing Health Services for Seniors with a Hearing Loss
Despite the clinical availability of audiological services to senior citizens relatively few seniors with hearing loss receive hearing healthcare services. The situation appears particularly concerning among seniors living in residential care settings, where it is estimated that 60-80% of residents have hearing loss, often without it even being identified. In addition, the adoption and use of hearing aids remain suboptimal. Indeed, between 25% and 32% of these individuals own hearing aids in Canada; among them, only 5% to 40% use them rarely or not at all. The work carried out in our laboratory is part of this ongoing effort to advance hearing healthcare, through the development of tools, knowledge, and interventions aimed at supporting clinical practice and facilitating system-level improvements. We hope to contribute, alongside the broader audiology community, to building more accessible, equitable, and effective services for Canadian seniors.
A Field Guide to Interpreting and Discussing the Public Health Landscape on Hearing Loss and Cognition
Nicholas S. Reed AuD PhD1,2Jennifer A. Deal PhD21Amplifon S.p.A, Milian, Italy2Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United States An explosion in public health literature over the past 15-20 years has linked hearing loss to numerous areas of aging, including cognitive decline, social isolation, health resource utilization, dementia, and physical…
The Way I Hear It
Gael recently gave what has become an annual presentation to the first-year audiology students at UBC. It gave her a chance to explain that while people are grateful for hearing aids and cochlear implants, technology is not the only fuel that drives the success in living with hearing loss.
To the Brain and Back: “Second-Person Neuroscience” For Hearing Loss, Aging, and Social Connection
A sense of connection is the foundation of social engagement and the development of personal relationships. People living with hearing loss, however, feel less socially connected because speech and language are more difficult for them to perceive in conversation or group settings. Audiologists play an important role in addressing these social needs and people are more satisfied with their hearing aids when they feel higher levels of social support.
The Fountain of Youth: Building Trust with Truth and Stopping Misinformation in Audiology
Health care providers and patients alike can be lured by the false claims of fake authorities about health issues and cures that are too good to be true. Hope springs eternal but too often we may succumb to empty or false hopes. Meanwhile, authentic scientific sources and evidence-based analyses of the benefits (or lack thereof) of treatments have become more difficult to identify. As reality and truth become elusive, trust is eroded. As trusted healthcare professionals, audiologists must preserve and promote truth to safeguard against misinformation.
The Way I Hear It
I haven’t yet watched Code of Silence, in which a deaf worker with exceptional speechreading abilities uses her skills to aid criminal investigations. I want to avoid the usual cringing at the myths of hearing loss and deafness perpetuated in popular media. But I have been assured that Code of Silence avoids these myths, some of them anyway, so I’ll give it a go.