Hearing loss, noise pollution, hearing risks : further infos to take care of your hearing.

The brain is a fascinating machine which is, every second, subjected to an immense amount of information perceived by the 5 senses: in order to function optimally, it must sort this information and retain only that which is indispensable. This sorting is done according to the information itself, which is classified into sensory memory, working memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. Can we improve our memory ? And, if so, how can we do it ?…

This article is about deaf people. To be born deaf or totally deaf is to live in absolute silence, detached from all relations with the world around us. Although our sympathy goes more readily to the blind, there is certainly…

Numerous studies have sought to understand and explain the deafness of this famous composer who ended up totally deaf a decade before his death, managing to compose during this…

Acoustic neuroma is a benign nerve tumor developed at the expense of cells of the Schwann sheath, which coats the auditory nerve, in particular its vestibular branch, which makes it prefer the exact term of vestibular schwannoma.The nerves of the peripheral nervous system are surrounded by Schwann cells that twist around themselves along the nerve, enveloping it in its entirety, forming a stack of membranes…

Which hearing aids are suitable and which are not ? What can we expect from a hearing aid ? These are two essential questions that the hearing impaired patient is often unaware of due to a total lack of transparency and clarity in this area. It is important to remember that no matter how good the hearing aid is, what is destroyed at the level…

A recent press release from the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) throws a spanner in the works following research carried out jointly by a Franco-South African and interdisciplinary team of scientists from the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research), the UT3 Paul Sabatier (University of Toulouse) and the University of Clermont Auvergne, as well as from Johannesburg and Pretoria. The results of…

Osteogenesis imperfecta means "incomplete bone formation". It is a well known disease in ENT, also called "glass bone disease" or " Lobstein's disease", after the doctor who described it. Osteogenesis imperfecta required a separate article even though it is congenital, caused by an autosomal dominant heterozygous mutation in 95% of cases, and affects only about one person in 10,000 to 20,000. Osteogenesis imperfecta is…

This article is taken from a study on newborn and fetal hearing, entitled "Prenatal hearing, what's new ?" by Carolyn Granier-Deferre and Marie-Claire Busnel. The research, conducted on different animal models, the premature child and the fetus, shows that the development of the auditory system takes place very gradually, during the last trimester of pregnancy. A few decades ago, it was thought that the fetus…

Etymologically, the word misophonia is composed of the word "misos" (which comes from Greek and means hatred, aversion) and the word "fonos" (noise). Misophonia is therefore the aversion to noise or at least to certain noises, which are very specific and essentially similar in all patients who complain of this condition.Totally ignored and unknown a few decades ago, this does not mean that it did…

There is no such thing as total absence of noise, absolute silence. A deaf or echo-free (anechoic) chamber, like the one created in the Orfield laboratories in Minneapolis, suppresses 99.9% of ambient noise, limiting the background level to about 9 decibels. In this environment, the ear perceives noises that it would not normally hear. But we also perceive a background noise in the ears, his…

Any significant hearing loss results in an increase in the concentration required to hear. This results in a decrease in cognitive capacity, affected by this new effort to hear, causing brain fatigue that reduces attention and cognitive resources useful for other tasks. This increases with the degree of hearing loss. At the same time, age naturally leads to a cognitive decline2, increasing the difficulties in…

Hearing is not listening. We all know the difference between "hearing" and "listening". A person can hear a noise, a sound or the flow of words coming out of the mouth of another person without any understanding emerging in his mind. Certainly, inattention, a mind cluttered with parasitic or personal thoughts pollutes the message received, but if we do not listen to the person who…

We live in a world that attacks the auditory system every day. Our world is nothing but noise : urban aggressions (horns, motorcycles), public works (jackhammer), individual noise pollution, such as walkmans, MP3 players, group noise pollution (concerts, discos, parties), firecrackers, fireworks, shooting, indoor sports, refectories, closed swimming pools, aso. However, our ear accompanies us for a lifetime and the sensory cells don’t grow back…

Although occupational hearing loss is a recognized risk in some industries and professions, there is relatively little data on hearing risk in the police force. Many professions coexist in the police force, some in the field, in contact with blaring sirens, horns and rioters' noises. Are police officers in the field and motorcyclists more at risk of occupational hearing loss than their colleagues assigned to…

It is becoming clear that SARS-Cov-2 triggers a chain of reactions generalized via alteration of the endothelial mucosa when Covid enters the body. If, in the vast majority of cases, the disease is not serious, we are aware of the aggressive potential of this virus and some individuals will quickly require a severe treatment in a hospital environment, which in many cases, will avoid the…

Congenital deafness is a hearing loss that exists at birth. 80% are genetic. However, not all genetic deafness is congenital. Congenital deafness affects 1 in 1000 to 1 in 2000 births. Genetic deafness is a deafness linked to an abnormality in a gene. Many genes responsible for sensorineural deafness (sensorineural deafness) have been located on human chromosomes and may be responsible for this genetic deafness.

The term tinnitus is known in 17 different countries and languages, which shows how widespread the condition is and how it is spreading all over the world, constituting perhaps one of the ills of the century, posing the problem of its treatment and (as a corollary) of its cause, which is far from being obvious if we except tinnitus resulting from sound exposure…

Audiometry is the examination performed by an ENT to measure hearing. We distinguish tonal and vocal audiometry. Pure tone audiometry measures the hearing of a subject by sending sounds into the ear at different frequencies and intensities. The resulting curve is an audiogram. It will allow us to assess the subject's hearing, measure his or her hearing loss, its type and the appearance according to…

The answer seems to be known in advance and yet! Man is born with a very small contingent of hair cells (cells that allow us to hear): about 15,000. These cells are differentiated very early during embryonic life and any cell damaged during life will not be replaced. However, they and only they ensure the mechano-electrical transduction, i.e…

Presbycusis is the result of the aging of the ear and affects everyone at a certain age. Presbycusis is to hearing what presbyopia is to sight. There is a major difference: presbycusis affects the sensory organ, which deteriorates with the years and does not regenerate, whereas presbyopia affects the eyeball, without damage to the sensory organ (optic nerve).