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Seniors Health/Hearing 2006-04 |
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Hearing with both ears does have its advantages!
Seniors Choice Newsmagazine, April 2006
Did you know we actually 'hear' with our brain? The ears are the means by which the information is transmitted to the auditory cortex in the brain. When you have a hearing loss your ears will have difficulty receiving and/or transmitting the information to your brain. The result - your brain receives reduced and/or distorted information. This can significantly impact your ability to participate in conversations with your family and friends. When hearing loss is significant it may cause feelings of anxiety, depression, and isolation.
Hearing well with both ears gives you the following benefits:
? Improved understanding of speech in quiet environments. Information provided by both ears is sent up and 'added' up at the level of your brain. Less guessing about what was really said.
? Two ears enable you to understand speech at a much softer level than you would with just one ear. In this case one plus one gives you much more than two!
? The ability to localize or find the direction of a sound source. The brain requires input from both ears in order to tell us the direction the sounds are coming from. Something we rely on every day.
? Stereo hearing - Sound quality is better, and there will be reduced listening stress and greater comfort in noise when both ears are providing information to your brain.
? Significantly better ability in understanding speech when in the presence of background noise.
A simple way to test this out for yourself is to turn the TV on and reduce the volume on the TV as low as you can until you are just able to make out what is being said. After listening for 5 seconds plug one ear up with your finger and listen for another 5 seconds. You should notice that with the one ear plugged up that you are either unable to discriminate what is being said on the TV, or that you have to strain to understand the speech. After you have done this in a quiet environment, I would then encourage you to turn on some other noise source (i.e. kitchen fan, radio) and repeat the process. The advantage of hearing with both ears should be more obvious in this latter scenario (i.e. in the presence of background noise).
When you have a hearing test and the discussion of the benefits of hearing aids arise remember the benefits of hearing when both ears are sending information to the brain. Hearing with two hearing aids gives you improved understanding of speech and reduced listening stress. It really is to your advantage!
If you have any hearing-related questions please send them to me at
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or submit them directly to me at either of my offices. Colin VanBergen is a clinical audiologist, and manages both the Kelowna and Westbank offices of the Okanagan Hearing Clinic.
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