Hearing loss changes the brain.

Bottesini

Bottesini

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I just read this, and was surprised, but it makes sense.

Scientists 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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Hearing loss changes the brain - Wellsphere
 
jillio said:
Yep. It has been confirmed that in sign language users, the auditory processing centers of the brain adapt to process visual information.
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I know AD is a deaf forum, but the same thing is true for the blind. In the case of a blind person, the brain learns to process information via auditory means rather than visual.
 
Yep. And that is the basis of my objection when the oralists say, "If you don't stimulate the auditory channels in the brain with sound, you loose the ability to use it." Nothing could be further from the truth.
 
jillio said:
Yep. And that is the basis of my objection when the oralists say, "If you don't stimulate the auditory channels in the brain with sound, you loose the ability to use it." Nothing could be further from the truth.
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The way I understood it, I thought the brain is now different, and stimulating with sound would be ineffective, hence my and also other people who have residual hearing problems with speech.
 
jillio said:
Yep. And that is the basis of my objection when the oralists say, "If you don't stimulate the auditory channels in the brain with sound, you loose the ability to use it." Nothing could be further from the truth.
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That's true. I can prove that with my own personal experience. I haven't been able to understand speech with my left ear for 10 years.

However, it only took me 3 months before I could understand most speech following my CI activation.
 
Bottesini said:
The way I understood it, I thought the brain is now different, and stimulating with sound would be ineffective, hence my and also other people who have residual hearing problems with speech.
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Well, different in the aspect of that which was designed to process auditory information adapts to process visual information. But the centers stay alive and active, they do not atrophy. So, if it becomes possible to receive auditory stimuli, then centers are still available to process it. Where the problem comes in is not whether the stimuli is processed, but whether meaning is connected to the processed stimuli. That involves memory and learning.
 
jillio said:
Well, different in the aspect of that which was designed to process auditory information adapts to process visual information. But the centers stay alive and active, they do not atrophy. So, if it becomes possible to receive auditory stimuli, then centers are still available to process it. Where the problem comes in is not whether the stimuli is processed, but whether meaning is connected to the processed stimuli. That involves memory and learning.
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Even if a person retains some ability to hear, the brain restructuring makes it difficult to process sounds.
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Well I have difficulty understanding speech, and I though the above quoted passage might have relevance to that as I do have residual hearing.

I guess you could just say the hearing I have is not in the area of the speech banana.
 
Bottesini said:
Well I have difficulty understanding speech, and I though the above quoted passage might have relevance to that as I do have residual hearing.

I guess you could just say the hearing I have is not in the area of the speech banana.
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Well, that could be. It could be a dB or a Hz connection as to why you don't understand speech with residual hearing. It could also be that only some sounds are not picked up auditorily. For example, my son has several "missing" sounds...no matter how they are amplified, the auditory nerve simply does not transmit that particular information. Or it could be, as the passage suggests, that you are simply processing that which is relevent to you visually, so your auditory centers are functioning from a visual standpoint.

And the brain restructuring does make processing sound to meaning more difficult. That is why such extensive work is required after a CI, or why people still need to "taught" to use a new HA. The sound gets to the brain, but the brain doesn't know what to do with it because it is unfamiliar. The brain has to be "re-trained" so to speak, to take in auditorily that which it had been processing visually.
 
jillio said:
Well, that could be. It could be a dB or a Hz connection as to why you don't understand speech with residual hearing. It could also be that only some sounds are not picked up auditorily. For example, my son has several "missing" sounds...no matter how they are amplified, the auditory nerve simply does not transmit that particular information. Or it could be, as the passage suggests, that you are simply processing that which is relevent to you visually, so your auditory centers are functioning from a visual standpoint.
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Yes, exactly I have these missing sounds. And I guess I was wondering, is it the brain or the nerve?

I must have way too much time on my hands today as it is a holiday. :Oops:
 
Bottesini said:
Yes, exactly I have these missing sounds. And I guess I was wondering, is it the brain or the nerve?

I must have way too much time on my hands today as it is a holiday. :Oops:
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LOL. In my son's case, and I would suspect in yours, as well....the nerve is responsible. The pathology in the nerve prevents it from transmitting the missing sounds into the brain.
 
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