Have you ever been in the middle of the roadway and your car breaks down? It’s not a fun experience. Your car has to be safely pulled off the road. And then, for whatever reason, you probably open your hood and have a look at your engine.
Humorously, you still do this despite the fact that you have no understanding of engines. Perhaps you think there’ll be a convenient knob you can turn or something. Inevitably, a tow truck will need to be called.
And it’s only when the professionals check out things that you get a picture of the issue. That’s because cars are complicated, there are so many moving pieces and computerized software that the symptoms (your car that won’t start) are not enough to tell you what’s wrong.
The same thing can occur at times with hearing loss. The symptom itself doesn’t necessarily identify what the cause is. Sure, noise-related hearing loss is the common culprit. But sometimes, it’s something else, something like auditory neuropathy.
Auditory neuropathy, what is it?
When most individuals consider hearing loss, they think of loud concerts and jet engines, excessive noise that harms your ability to hear. This kind of hearing loss is known as sensorineural hearing loss, and it’s a bit more involved than simple noise damage.
But in some cases, long-term hearing loss can be caused by something other than noise damage. While it’s less prevalent, hearing loss can in some cases be caused by a condition called auditory neuropathy. When sound can’t, for some reason, be correctly transmitted to your brain even though your ear is collecting that sound just fine.
Auditory neuropathy symptoms
The symptoms of traditional noise related hearing loss can sometimes look a lot like those of auditory neuropathy. You can’t hear well in loud situations, you keep cranking up the volume on your television and other devices, that kind of thing. That’s why diagnosing auditory neuropathy can be so difficult.
Auditory neuropathy, however, has some specific symptoms that make identifying it easier. These presentations are pretty strong indicators that you aren’t confronting sensorineural hearing loss, but auditory neuropathy instead. Obviously, nothing can replace getting an accurate diagnosis from us about your hearing loss.
Here are some of the more unique symptoms of auditory neuropathy:
- Difficulty understanding speech: In some cases, the volume of a word is normal, but you just can’t understand what’s being said. Words are unclear and unclear.
- Sounds sound jumbled or confused: This is, once again, not an issue with volume. You can hear sounds but you just can’t make sense of them. This can apply to all kinds of sounds, not just spoken words.
- Sound fades in and out: The volume of sound seems to go up and down like somebody is messing with the volume knob. This could be a sign that you’re experiencing auditory neuropathy.
Some triggers of auditory neuropathy
These symptoms can be explained, in part, by the underlying causes behind this specific condition. On an individual level, the reasons why you might develop auditory neuropathy might not be totally clear. This disorder can develop in both children and adults. And there are a couple of well defined possible causes, generally speaking:
- Damage to the nerves: The hearing center of your brain receives sound from a particular nerve in your ear. The sounds that the brain attempts to “interpret” will sound unclear if there is damage to this nerve. When this happens, you might interpret sounds as garbled, indecipherable, or too quiet to discern.
- Damage to the cilia that send signals to the brain: Sound can’t be sent to your brain in full form once these little delicate hairs have been damaged in a particular way.
Risk factors of auditory neuropathy
No one is quite certain why some individuals will develop auditory neuropathy while others might not. As a result, there isn’t a definitive way to prevent auditory neuropathy. Nevertheless, there are close associations which may reveal that you’re at a higher risk of developing this condition.
It should be noted that these risk factors are not guarantees, you might have every single one of these risk factors and still not experience auditory neuropathy. But you’re more statistically likely to experience auditory neuropathy the more risk factors you have.
Risk factors for children
Here are a few risk factors that will raise the likelihood of auditory neuropathy in children:
- Liver disorders that lead to jaundice (a yellow look to the skin)
- Preterm or premature birth
- A low birth weight
- An abundance of bilirubin in the blood (bilirubin is a normal byproduct of red blood cell breakdown)
- A lack of oxygen before labor begins or during birth
- Other neurological conditions
Risk factors for adults
For adults, risk factors that raise your likelihood of developing auditory neuropathy include:
- Family history of hearing disorders, including auditory neuropathy
- Some medications (specifically improper use of medications that can cause hearing problems)
- Immune disorders of various kinds
- Specific infectious diseases, such as mumps
Minimizing the risks as much as possible is always a smart plan. If risk factors are present, it might be a good idea to schedule regular screenings with us.
How is auditory neuropathy diagnosed?
A standard hearing test involves listening to tones with a pair of headphones and raising a hand depending on what side you hear the tone on. When you have auditory neuropathy, that test will be of very limited use.
Instead, we will generally suggest one of two tests:
- Otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test: The response of your inner ear and cochlea to stimuli will be evaluated with this diagnostic. We will put a small microphone just inside your ear canal. Then, we will play an array of clicks and tones. The diagnostic device will then measure how well your inner ear responds to those tones and clicks. If the inner ear is an issue, this data will expose it.
- Auditory brainstem response (ABR) test: Specialized electrodes will be fastened to specific spots on your head and scalp with this test. This test isn’t painful or unpleasant in any way so don’t be concerned. These electrodes track your brainwaves, with particular attention to how those brainwaves respond to sound. The quality of your brainwave responses will help us identify whether your hearing issues reside in your outer ear (as with sensorineural hearing loss) or further in (such as auditory neuropathy).
Diagnosing your auditory neuropathy will be much more successful once we run the applicable tests.
Is there treatment for auditory neuropathy?
So, just like you bring your car to the auto technician to have it fixed, you can bring your ears to us for treatment! Auditory neuropathy generally has no cure. But this disorder can be treated in several possible ways.
- Hearing aids: Even with auditory neuropathy, in milder cases, hearing aids can boost sound enough to allow you to hear better. For some individuals, hearing aids will work just fine! But because volume isn’t usually the problem, this isn’t usually the situation. As a result, hearing aids are often combined with other therapy and treatment solutions.
- Cochlear implant: Hearing aids won’t be able to solve the problem for most people. In these situations, a cochlear implant may be necessary. Signals from your inner ear are transmitted directly to your brain with this implant. They’re pretty amazing! (And you can find many YouTube videos of them working for patients.)
- Frequency modulation: Sometimes, it’s possible to hear better by increasing or lowering specific frequencies. That’s what happens with a technology known as frequency modulation. Basically, highly customized hearing aids are used in this strategy.
- Communication skills training: Communication skills training can be combined with any combination of these treatments if necessary. This will let you work with whatever level of hearing you have to communicate better.
The sooner you get treatment, the better
Getting your condition treated promptly will, as with any hearing disorder, produce better outcomes.
So if you think you have auditory neuropathy, or even just normal hearing loss, it’s important to get treatment as soon as you can. The sooner you make an appointment, the more quickly you’ll be able to hear better, and get back to your daily life! This can be especially crucial for children, who experience a lot of cognitive development and linguistic growth during their early years.
