Hearing loss changes the brain

brainScientists at Virginia Commonwealth University have discovered that hearing loss leads to a remodelling of the brain in which auditory regions are overtaken by the sensory system that corresponds to touch. This cross-model plasticity could explain why some people with hearing loss struggle with therapies. Alex Meredith, lead scientist on the study stated, “Our study indicates that hearing deficits in adult animals result in a conversion of their brain’s sound processing centres to respond to another sensory modality, making the interpretation of residual hearing even more difficult.” Even if a person retains some ability to hear, the brain restructuring makes it difficult to process sounds.

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  5. Conductive and Sensorineural hearing loss

3 comments
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  1. speakuplibrarian on April 13th 2009 at 3:18 pm :

    Very interesting. Can you post a link where we can read more on this?
    Sarah

  2. David Adams on April 23rd 2009 at 1:09 am :

    I also would like to know more of this, I have been losing my hearing since 1974. Now I am wearing a premium aid but am having trouble with understanding speech even though I hear it. Maybe some sort of exercise to retrain.

  3. Steve on April 23rd 2009 at 12:32 pm :

    Hello Sarah/David.

    I usually quote my source on news posts but forgot to on this one and unfortunately I can’t remember where it came from. I think it was http://www.uk.audio-infos.eu but I cannot find the article on there.

    Apologies.

    If I find out anymore I will definitely write about it again.

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