Have you ever been in the middle of the road and your car breaks down? It’s not an enjoyable situation. Your car has to be safely pulled off the road. And then, for some 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 knowledge of engines. Maybe you think there’ll be a convenient knob you can turn or something. Ultimately, a tow truck will have to be called.
And a picture of the issue only becomes obvious when experts get a look at it. Just because the car isn’t moving, doesn’t mean you can know what’s wrong with it because vehicles are complex and computerized machines.
With hearing loss, this same sort of thing can occur. The symptom itself doesn’t automatically identify what the cause is. Sure, noise-related hearing loss is the usual cause. But in some cases, it’s something else, something like auditory neuropathy.
What is auditory neuropathy?
When most individuals consider hearing loss, they think of loud concerts and jet engines, excessive noise that damages your ability to hear. This type of hearing loss is called sensorineural hearing loss, and it’s somewhat more involved than simple noise damage.
But sometimes, this kind of long-term, noise related damage isn’t the cause of hearing loss. A condition known as auditory neuropathy, while less prevalent, can in some cases be the cause. When sound can’t, for whatever reason, be correctly carried to your brain even though your ear is collecting that sound just fine.
Auditory neuropathy symptoms
The symptoms related to auditory neuropathy are, at first glimpse, not all that dissimilar from those symptoms associated with conventional hearing loss. You can’t hear very well in noisy situations, you keep turning up the volume on your television and other devices, that sort of thing. That’s why diagnosing auditory neuropathy can be so difficult.
Auditory neuropathy, however, has some distinctive symptoms that make spotting it easier. When hearing loss symptoms manifest in this way, you can be fairly sure that it’s not normal noise related hearing loss. Of course, nothing can replace getting a real-time diagnosis from us about your hearing loss.
The more distinctive symptoms of auditory neuropathy include:
- The inability to distinguish words: Sometimes, you can’t understand what someone is saying even though the volume is normal. The words sound garbled or distorted.
- Sound fades in and out: Maybe it feels like somebody is playing with the volume knob in your head! This could be an indication that you’re experiencing auditory neuropathy.
- Sounds seem jumbled or confused: This is, once again, not a problem with volume. The volume of what you’re hearing is just fine, the issue is that the sounds seem jumbled and you can’t understand them. This can go beyond the speech and pertain to all types of sounds around you.
What triggers auditory neuropathy?
The underlying causes of this disorder can, in part, be defined by the symptoms. It may not be very clear why you have developed auditory neuropathy on a personal level. Both adults and children can experience this condition. And there are a couple of well defined possible causes, generally speaking:
- Damage to the nerves: There’s a nerve that transmits sound signals from your inner ear to the hearing center of your brain. If this nerve becomes damaged, your brain can’t receive the full signal, and as a result, the sounds it “interprets” will sound off. When this occurs, you might interpret sounds as jumbled, unclear, or too quiet to discern.
- Damage to the cilia that transmit signals to the brain: Sound can’t be sent to your brain in full form once these little fragile hairs have been compromised in a particular way.
Auditory neuropathy risk factors
No one is really certain why some people will develop auditory neuropathy while others may not. That’s why there isn’t an exact science to preventing it. But you might be at a higher risk of developing auditory neuropathy if you show certain close connections.
It should be mentioned that these risk factors are not guarantees, you could have all of these risk factors and still not experience auditory neuropathy. But the more risk factors shown, the higher your statistical likelihood of developing this condition.
Children’s risk factors
Here are a few risk factors that will increase the likelihood of auditory neuropathy in children:
- Preterm or premature birth
- An abundance of bilirubin in the blood (bilirubin is a normal byproduct of red blood cell breakdown)
- A low birth weight
- Liver disorders that result in jaundice (a yellow look to the skin)
- Other neurological conditions
- A lack of oxygen before labor begins or during birth
Risk factors for adults
Here are a few auditory neuropathy risk factors for adults:
- auditory neuropathy and other hearing conditions that run in the family
- Some medications (specifically incorrect use of medications that can cause hearing issues)
- Various types of immune disorders
- Certain infectious diseases, such as mumps
Generally, it’s a good plan to limit these risks as much as you can. Scheduling regular screenings with us is a smart plan, particularly if you do have risk factors.
How is auditory neuropathy diagnosed?
During a normal hearing test, you’ll likely be given a set of headphones and be told to raise your hand when you hear a tone. That test won’t help much with auditory neuropathy.
One of the following two tests will typically be used instead:
- Auditory brainstem response (ABR) test: Specialized electrodes will be attached to certain places on your head and scalp with this test. This test isn’t painful or uncomfortable in any way so don’t be concerned. These electrodes track your brainwaves, with particular attention to how those brainwaves react to sound. The quality of your brainwave responses will help us determine whether your hearing issues reside in your outer ear (such as sensorineural hearing loss) or further in (as with auditory neuropathy).
- Otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test: This diagnostic is made to determine how well your inner ear and cochlea respond to sound stimuli. We will put a little microphone just inside your ear canal. Then, we will play a series of tones and clicks. The diagnostic device will then determine how well your inner ear reacts to those tones and clicks. If the inner ear is an issue, this data will reveal it.
Diagnosing your auditory neuropathy will be much more successful once we do the appropriate tests.
Does auditory neuropathy have any treatments?
So, just like you bring your car to the auto technician to get it fixed, you can bring your ears to us for treatment! Auditory neuropathy generally has no cure. But this disorder can be managed in several possible ways.
- Hearing aids: In some less severe cases, hearing aids will be able to supply the necessary sound amplification to help you hear better, even with auditory neuropathy. Hearing aids will be an adequate option for some individuals. But because volume isn’t usually the issue, this isn’t typically the case. Hearing aids are often used in combination with other treatments because of this.
- Cochlear implant: For some individuals, hearing aids will not be able to solve the problems. In these situations, a cochlear implant may be required. This implant, basically, takes the signals from your inner ear and transports them directly to your brain. They’re quite amazing! (And you can find many YouTube videos of them working for patients.)
- Frequency modulation: Sometimes, it’s possible to hear better by boosting or reducing certain frequencies. With a technology known as frequency modulation, that’s exactly what happens. This approach often makes use of devices that are, basically, highly customized hearing aids.
- Communication skills training: In some cases, any and all of these treatments could be combined with communication skills exercises. This will help you communicate with the hearing you have and work around your symptoms instead of treating them.
It’s best to get treatment as soon as you can
As with any hearing disorder, prompt treatment can lead to better outcomes.
So if you think you have auditory neuropathy, or even just regular old hearing loss, it’s important to get treatment as soon as you can. You’ll be able to get back to hearing better and enjoying your life after you make an appointment and get treated. This can be extremely crucial for children, who experience a lot of cognitive development and linguistic expansion during their early years.