Filter trouble? Why audiologists worry noise-cancelling tech may impair hearing skills | Science
R.Hello, they are estimated to make mobility more likely and shield against the religion of daily life. But the headphones that transmit the noise were scrutinized after hearing scientists raised fears that excessive use may weaken hearing skills in people.
Although technology has clear benefits, not the least of which is to help people listen to music in low size, some specialists doubt that the background noise is constantly may have unintended consequences.
Renee Almeida, a clinical driving of Importable Healthcare NHS TRST, witnessed an increase in adults coming to her clinic with hearing issues only for tests for his hearing suggestion.
The problem is with their brain, not their ears. They may fail to determine somewhere where the sound comes from, or they are struggling to follow a conversation on the train, in a bar or in a restaurant.
The condition, known as APD, is often diagnosed in children, and therefore the height in adults with similar problems that hit Almeida as strange. Its intuition is that the wide use of noise cancellation headphones can be the perpetrator.
“The brain is accustomed to dealing with thousands of different sounds at the same time, and he was always able to know what he is and does not deserve to listen to. She says:” If a dog is barking outside, then I realize that it is second in the second, then I do not really care. ” . “With the abolition of noise, you give your mind only one source of sound, whether it is podcast or music. One source. There is nothing else to worry your mind. “
Almeida says that the excessive use of headphones exposed to noise can weaken the development process with which children learn to attend sounds. For adults, their brains can make lazy, just as the muscles weaken without exercise. Either way, as you say, people can struggle to extract speech from Hubbub around them.
There is no scientific evidence that noise canceling headphones cause APD. There is no strong data that shows an increase in this case. But Al -Mida believes that the question requires attention. “Certainly studies need to do,” she says. “The research should focus on the effects of extended use, especially in youth.”
APD affects about three to five percent of school -age children. It has been linked to low birth weight, but also chronic otitis infections. In the elderly, the condition can cause stroke or trauma in the head. In many cases, the cause is never clear.
Dr. Sherrill Edwards, the hearing scientist at Boston Children’s Hospital, said that children with APD may struggle to hear the classroom, face difficulty in working where the sounds come, and lose the non -verbal sermon such as the transformation in the tone that announces mockery. Reading and spelling can also suffer. “We definitely see academic issues,” she says.
Whether the cases are more difficult to say. Edwards says audio therapy has been a long -term specialization in a specialty. While the referrals have risen better, there are no reliable records to measure any direction against.
According to Harvey Delon, a professor of auditory science at the University of Manchester, there is no doubt that the listening experience affects our ability to separate the “required speech” from the background noise. He says that children are improving the use of spatial sermon to reach sound sources from the age of five to 14 years.
But disrupting what he hears can be more problematic for children than adults. If the child has repeated the ear infections before the age of five, they can find it so severe, later, to focus on the sounds from one direction with the suppression of those from another. Surprisingly, Delon says, many do not catch up with their enemies behind them. Instead, they need to learn skill through intensive training on applications such as A sound storm or Sound.
Adults seem to be different. If a person wears one ear payment for a week, he will gradually restore how to determine where the sounds are. When the ear payment is removed, its capacity decreases again, but it quickly recovers to its previous level.
For Delon, the idea that the noise canceling headphones may lead APD is a hypothesis that has not yet been tested. He says: “There is no research that I have realized an investigation into a link between the use of noise canceling headphones and reduce the ability of hearing treatment,” he says.
Delon warns that loud music can damage the neurons in the auditory system without affecting the thresholds that are measured in hearing tests. “Listening to loud music may be the cause of the problem of auditory treatment, not the advantage of canceling noise,” he says. “If so, noise cancellation may be a good advantage, as one allows one to listen to music, without intervention from the background noise, at a lower level.”
Professor Danny Tomlin, head of hearing and speech diseases at the University of Melbourne, says people who use noise canceling headphones for long periods may find listening more difficult when they are removed. But she says, “The benefits should not be overlooked,” to manage sensory inputs in nervous people and help individuals listen to podcasts and movies on aircraft and trains.
“Instead of suggesting the headphones abandoning the cancellation of noise, we need more comprehensive research studies.”
Currently, Almeida recommends bone connection headphones and hearing training. She urges patients to listen to radio discussions and download the words of rap songs when they play. “There is enormous flexibility in the brain,” she says. “Make an effort to listen to what is said.”
