Nature's Noise Reduction

William J. Campbell M.S., Audiologist

Have you ever wondered how you were able to understand everyday conversation in all types of adverse (noisy) situations prior to your hearing loss? The complaint of "I hear everything but not clearly" is most commonly associated with inner ear hair cell degeneration in addition to other system weaknesses that develop with advancing age. Normal hearing is complex from top to bottom. Nature has provided us with the capability of reducing confusion related to competing messages by means of an outer and middle ear mechanical system connected to the cochlea, brainstem, and cortex with all the necessary bio-electric noise reduction circuitry included. When the two ears are balanced in terms of their pick up patterns, the brain will have an easier time perceiving the locations of multiple voices, thus enabling us to pinpoint the one of most interest . This auditory grouping ability assumes a mechanism capable of pitch, time, frequency, and correlational analysis------a lot to ask of one ear, let alone two, with years of noise exposures, hereditary related glitches and just plain aging!! Though the hearing aids of today are striving to perform their own noise reduction through directional microphone/computer processing, none can match the exquisite performance of a normal hearing adult. The best minds involved in the psychology/physiology of hearing readily admit that the system is far more involved than most clinicians seem to admit. There appears to be a healthy dose of magical thinking concerning what represents effective treatment for hearing impairment. Remember that a properly fitted hearing aid will enable you to understand speech significantly better in many instances but we must be realistic about the inherent complexities associated with our rehabilitative efforts. The most important thing to remember when one is a hearing aid user is to have regular check-ups to keep the aids in good operating condition. Finally, wear your hearing aid full time for optimal results since the brain needs a robust ‘audio baseline' to make ongoing decisions about the communication environment. Research suggests that given time, an impaired hearing system has the potential to rearrange some of its internal number crunching to maximize performance.

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