You are here

Loud sound may pose more harm than first thought



Recent research may have found an explanation for problems like his—something called “hidden hearing loss.”

Scientists have been finding evidence that loud noise—from rock concerts, leaf blowers, power tools, and the like—damages our hearing in a previously-unsuspected way.



It also may help explain why people have more trouble doing that as they age.

It may lead to persistent ringing in the ears, as well.

The bottom line: “Noise is more dangerous than we thought.”


But he and others already are working on potential treatments.





Liberman's work suggests there's another kind of damage that doesn't kill off hair cells, but which leads to experiences like Garlock's.


“You come home and you get that ringing in your ears that lasts for a few days, and then it goes away,” he noted.



Last fall, he came across a news story about a study co-authored by Liberman. It was a follow-up to Liberman's earlier work that suggests loud noise damages the delicate connections between hair cells and the nerves that carry the hearing signal to the brain.



“I notice myself leaning in and asking people to repeat themselves, but I don't notice anybody else doing that,” he said.

Garlock e-mailed one of Liberman's colleagues and volunteered for any follow-up studies.



“We didn't have a really good explanation for it,” said Fifer, who's an official of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.




But it turns out, Liberman says, that losing enough synapses erodes the message the nerves deliver to the brain—wiping out details that are crucial for sifting conversation out from background noise.




“It isn't awesome to have your ears ringing. It's telling you [that] you did some damage,” he stressed.

Twitter icon
Facebook icon
Google icon
LinkedIn icon
Pinterest icon
Reddit icon
e-mail icon