How the Brain Perceives Sound
What are sounds anyway? Maybe you’ve never given this much thought. But those who have hearing problems think about these issues regularly. They want to understand how hearing loss occurs. Occasionally, we can all experience temporary hearing problems. It can be troubling at first but usually, these go away in a few days. For instance, try sitting in a room with absolutely no sound whatsoever. Many people report hearing a ringing in their ears with the absence of all sounds. This has led to even more exciting discoveries for researchers. Physical sounds are in fact oscillating and propagating pressure vibration waves transferred by the cochlea into electrical impulses. Your brain perceives these vibrations as specific sounds. Some sounds...
How Common is Hearing Loss?
Each day we hear loud sounds from freeway traffic and car horns to airport noise. It’s easy to get so accustomed to all that noise that you don’t realize that it could be harming your hearing. One survey shows that 1 in 4 people over 60 years old have some degree of hearing loss. The reason for that is simple. The longer we live, the more we are exposed to loud noises and most of us don’t carry ear plugs around in our pockets. Have you taken your car to the car wash lately? The sounds that a car wash make are at around 89 dB. A food blender is 88 dB, while a lawn mower is 96...
