Most people are familiar with that feeling of exhaustion after leaving a party or ending a Zoom call, but many are unfamiliar with what the feeling is called. Audiologists refer to it as listening fatigue, and while it can affect anyone, people with hearing loss are most familiar with it. Fortunately, wearing hearing aids can help reduce feelings of listening fatigue.
Hearing Loss Is Tiring
The brain plays an essential role in helping us hear, understand what we’re hearing and respond appropriately. There are three parts of the brain that work together so you can perform these tasks:
- The auditory cortex, located in the temporal lobe, receives sensory information from the inner ear.
- Wernicke’s area, also located in the temporal lobe, helps with speech comprehension.
- Broca’s area, located in the frontal lobe, helps with speech production.
When you have hearing loss, these parts of the brain must work extra hard to make sense of the input that’s being received. The reason this is so exhausting is because of the relationship between the ears and the brain.
Within the inner ears are sensory hair cells called stereocilia, which convert soundwaves into electrical energy that the brain then interprets. Each cell is responsible for a specific frequency. When these cells become damaged, which could happen while attending a concert at Music Farm, the auditory system loses the ability to process that frequency, and the brain receives an incomplete picture.
How Hearing Aids Help
A study by researchers at Vanderbilt University, published by Ear and Hearing in 2013, sought to explore the link between hearing loss and listening fatigue, as well as uncover what impact hearing aids can have.
Researchers gathered data from 16 patients ages 47-69 who had mild to severe sensorineural hearing loss. They tested each of the participants’ word recognition, word recall and visual reaction times with and without hearing aids.
Results show that the participants had better recall and shorter reaction times when they wore hearing aids. “The use of clinically fit hearing aids may reduce listening effort and susceptibility to mental fatigue associated with sustained speech-processing demands,” said study authors.
For more information about how hearing aids can reduce listening fatigue, call the experts at The Hearing & Balance Center today!