June 4, 2021 • 6 mins
Today's hearing aids incorporate all kinds of smart technology to help the deaf and hard of hearing community. Learn about the tech in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/ear/modern-hearing-aids.htm
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Hey brain Stuff Lauren Boglebaum. Here. There was a time
when hearing aids may have seemed too many people like clunky,
uncomfortable gadgets that were awkward to wear. But today these
devices are often so small and thin that they're mostly
(00:22):
hidden behind the ear lobes, and you can adjust these
hearing aids with a few taps on a smartphone app
to make it easier to hear in whatever environment you
find yourself in. They're so sleek that marketers of the
latest products described them with the kind of language you'd
expect from car commercials, and they come with all kinds
of modern features. For example, one product called the Horizon
(00:45):
uses an algorithm to improve speech clarity and can interact
with smartphones and other devices to handle phone calls, stream
podcasts and audio books, and even audio from television. And
another product, the Olivio AI hearing aid, uses artificial intelligence
and integrated sensors to not only make it easier to
hear what people are saying, but also can work with
(01:07):
a smartphone to track physical and brain activity, and has
a feature that can translate foreign languages for wearers. Hearing
aids are making technological leaps at a time when hearing
loss seems to be on the rise, both in the
US and elsewhere in the world. Some hearing loss is
the result of aging, heredity, or illnesses such as meningitis
(01:28):
that can damage the ears, but exposure to loud sounds,
which was once mostly a problem for industrial workers, is
a growing problem in our increasingly noisy world. Study by
University of Michigan researchers found that about nine out of
ten New York City residents were chronically exposed two levels
(01:48):
of noise that were high enough to harm their hearing.
Some of the risk comes from traffic and other environmental sounds,
but we inflict a lot of punishment on our ears
simply by attending sports events and concerts. If you go
to these events where earplugs, listening to music through earbuds
and cranking up the volume to drown out the ambient
noise that the buds let in also does damage. As
(02:12):
a result, more and more of us are having problems
with our hearing at younger ages. One survey of two thousand,
four hundred and thirty nine US adults by the American
Speech Language Hearing Association found that fewer than half of
forty nine percent described their hearing is excellent, while thirty
eight percent so that they're hearing wasn't as good as
it could be, and thirteen percent so that they were
(02:34):
having difficulty hearing. But despite this, only about twenty percent
of the people in the poll had had their hearing
tested in the past five years, compared to sixty one
percent who had had vision tests, who had had their
blood pressure checked, and forty one percent who had had
their cholesterol levels tested or undergone mammograms. Hearing tests were
(02:54):
even less popular than procedures such as prostrate exams and
kolonoscopy's twenty three percent, and only six percent of people
in the survey said that they had gotten treatment for
hearing loss. For the article that this episode is based on,
How Stuff Work, spoke by email with Atlanta resident Kristin Palladino,
the editorial director and co founder of Equally Wed, an
(03:16):
lgbt Q plus wedding publication, who happens to have been
born with severe hearing loss in both of her ears.
She doesn't even remember when she was first fitted for
hearing aids. She said, I know that I put them
in my desk drawer in third grade and refused to
wear them. I was so embarrassed of them. I just
wanted to blend in, and I felt like I stood out. Palladino,
(03:37):
who is now forty three, says it wasn't until she
was failing her college courses because she was missing key
information that she finally went to an audiologist and got
hearing aids again. How Stuff Works also spoke with Dr
Hope Lantern, the lead audiologist for here dot com, which
is an online source for hearing aids from various manufacturers
(03:57):
and also offers access to a nationwide net work of
audiologists who can provide in person testing and guidance. She
explains that waiting to get help can be a problem
because the longer someone allows hearing loss to continue, the
worst the problem will become, and the more difficult it
will be to remedy. Though the ears pick up sound,
(04:17):
it's really the brain that analyzes and makes sense of
all that noise, and over time, auditory deprivation will lead
to reduced activity in the parts of the brain that
process sound. However, the brain is always changing, and you
can get at least some of that activity back. Once
a person with hearing loss starts using hearing aids, there's
(04:39):
a period of adjustment. Initially, the rush of unfamiliar sound
may be disconcerting or overwhelming. Gradually, though, as a hearing
aid user adjusts and gets to the right settings with
the help of an audiologist, the regular exposure to sound
can help the brain essentially rewire itself. Lanter says that
brain imaging study show audio crossing areas gaining and areas
(05:02):
to provide visual processing, reducing the load that they've been carrying.
Palladino said, with my hearing aids, I can hear my children,
my wife, the rain, strangers in stores trying to get
my attention, an ambulance blasting its siren behind me in
the road. I'm able to function in society without them.
I'm isolated and vulnerable, and technologically advanced hearing aids can
(05:27):
actually help make that transition easier. The aforementioned horizon has
a feature called relaxed mode, which allows a wearer to
block out the noise of the world for a while
and distress with calming sounds. That ability to take breaks
and still keep the device in the ear has another
plus by making it less likely that the wearer will
remove the hearing aids temporarily and then forget to put
(05:49):
them back in. Of course, hearing aids aren't the be all,
end all to improving the lives of deaf and heart
of hearing individuals. If you or someone you know is
experiencing hearing loss and you're not sure what to do,
or if you just want to learn more, check out
the work of organizations like the National Association of the Death.
There is so much work and advocacy being done, from
(06:11):
personal education to better healthcare, to more accessible technologies to
governmental policy. Today's episode is based on the article modern
hearing aids do way more than help you here on
how stuff works dot com, written by Patrick Jake Hyder.
Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership
(06:32):
with how stuff works dot Com and is produced by
Tyler Playing. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Hey brain Stuff Lauren Boglebaum. Here. There was a time
when hearing aids may have seemed too many people like clunky,
uncomfortable gadgets that were awkward to wear. But today these
devices are often so small and thin that they're mostly
(00:22):
hidden behind the ear lobes, and you can adjust these
hearing aids with a few taps on a smartphone app
to make it easier to hear in whatever environment you
find yourself in. They're so sleek that marketers of the
latest products described them with the kind of language you'd
expect from car commercials, and they come with all kinds
of modern features. For example, one product called the Horizon
(00:45):
uses an algorithm to improve speech clarity and can interact
with smartphones and other devices to handle phone calls, stream
podcasts and audio books, and even audio from television. And
another product, the Olivio AI hearing aid, uses artificial intelligence
and integrated sensors to not only make it easier to
hear what people are saying, but also can work with
(01:07):
a smartphone to track physical and brain activity, and has
a feature that can translate foreign languages for wearers. Hearing
aids are making technological leaps at a time when hearing
loss seems to be on the rise, both in the
US and elsewhere in the world. Some hearing loss is
the result of aging, heredity, or illnesses such as meningitis
(01:28):
that can damage the ears, but exposure to loud sounds,
which was once mostly a problem for industrial workers, is
a growing problem in our increasingly noisy world. Study by
University of Michigan researchers found that about nine out of
ten New York City residents were chronically exposed two levels
(01:48):
of noise that were high enough to harm their hearing.
Some of the risk comes from traffic and other environmental sounds,
but we inflict a lot of punishment on our ears
simply by attending sports events and concerts. If you go
to these events where earplugs, listening to music through earbuds
and cranking up the volume to drown out the ambient
noise that the buds let in also does damage. As
(02:12):
a result, more and more of us are having problems
with our hearing at younger ages. One survey of two thousand,
four hundred and thirty nine US adults by the American
Speech Language Hearing Association found that fewer than half of
forty nine percent described their hearing is excellent, while thirty
eight percent so that they're hearing wasn't as good as
it could be, and thirteen percent so that they were
(02:34):
having difficulty hearing. But despite this, only about twenty percent
of the people in the poll had had their hearing
tested in the past five years, compared to sixty one
percent who had had vision tests, who had had their
blood pressure checked, and forty one percent who had had
their cholesterol levels tested or undergone mammograms. Hearing tests were
(02:54):
even less popular than procedures such as prostrate exams and
kolonoscopy's twenty three percent, and only six percent of people
in the survey said that they had gotten treatment for
hearing loss. For the article that this episode is based on,
How Stuff Work, spoke by email with Atlanta resident Kristin Palladino,
the editorial director and co founder of Equally Wed, an
(03:16):
lgbt Q plus wedding publication, who happens to have been
born with severe hearing loss in both of her ears.
She doesn't even remember when she was first fitted for
hearing aids. She said, I know that I put them
in my desk drawer in third grade and refused to
wear them. I was so embarrassed of them. I just
wanted to blend in, and I felt like I stood out. Palladino,
(03:37):
who is now forty three, says it wasn't until she
was failing her college courses because she was missing key
information that she finally went to an audiologist and got
hearing aids again. How Stuff Works also spoke with Dr
Hope Lantern, the lead audiologist for here dot com, which
is an online source for hearing aids from various manufacturers
(03:57):
and also offers access to a nationwide net work of
audiologists who can provide in person testing and guidance. She
explains that waiting to get help can be a problem
because the longer someone allows hearing loss to continue, the
worst the problem will become, and the more difficult it
will be to remedy. Though the ears pick up sound,
(04:17):
it's really the brain that analyzes and makes sense of
all that noise, and over time, auditory deprivation will lead
to reduced activity in the parts of the brain that
process sound. However, the brain is always changing, and you
can get at least some of that activity back. Once
a person with hearing loss starts using hearing aids, there's
(04:39):
a period of adjustment. Initially, the rush of unfamiliar sound
may be disconcerting or overwhelming. Gradually, though, as a hearing
aid user adjusts and gets to the right settings with
the help of an audiologist, the regular exposure to sound
can help the brain essentially rewire itself. Lanter says that
brain imaging study show audio crossing areas gaining and areas
(05:02):
to provide visual processing, reducing the load that they've been carrying.
Palladino said, with my hearing aids, I can hear my children,
my wife, the rain, strangers in stores trying to get
my attention, an ambulance blasting its siren behind me in
the road. I'm able to function in society without them.
I'm isolated and vulnerable, and technologically advanced hearing aids can
(05:27):
actually help make that transition easier. The aforementioned horizon has
a feature called relaxed mode, which allows a wearer to
block out the noise of the world for a while
and distress with calming sounds. That ability to take breaks
and still keep the device in the ear has another
plus by making it less likely that the wearer will
remove the hearing aids temporarily and then forget to put
(05:49):
them back in. Of course, hearing aids aren't the be all,
end all to improving the lives of deaf and heart
of hearing individuals. If you or someone you know is
experiencing hearing loss and you're not sure what to do,
or if you just want to learn more, check out
the work of organizations like the National Association of the Death.
There is so much work and advocacy being done, from
(06:11):
personal education to better healthcare, to more accessible technologies to
governmental policy. Today's episode is based on the article modern
hearing aids do way more than help you here on
how stuff works dot com, written by Patrick Jake Hyder.
Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership
(06:32):
with how stuff works dot Com and is produced by
Tyler Playing. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
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