RESEARCH COMMUNICATION. Listen to Maria Hoff, researcher and lecturer in audiology at the University of Gothenburg. Within her field of audiology, everything from medicine and psychology to technology and acoustics is encompassed.
- Vi hör med hjärnan (Soundcloud)
- Vi hör med hjärnan (version captioned in Swedish on GU Play)
The ears are the funnels that capture the sound waves, but it is in the brain that hearing resides. Hearing aids can greatly assist people with impaired hearing, but it may also require adjustments to the environment, both to protect hearing from damage and to enable more people to be included in conversations.
The conversation touches on many unexpected ways that hearing affects humans. Since hearing resides in the brain, even deaf individuals may need to protect themselves from loud noises to avoid developing tinnitus. Research also shows that older adults with hearing loss are more likely to develop dementia, something that hearing aids seem to be able to prevent.
BY: ELIN LINDSTRÖM
