Clinical Relevance
Hearing loss
•>20 million Americans
•Reasons:
–Conduction loss
–Sensory / neural loss
•Test: bone conduction
•Presbycusis (loss of high frequency sensitivity
•Damage by (chronic) exposure to noise
•Drugs (aspirin)
(From Sekuler & Blake, 1994)
Helen Keller: more problems by impaired hearing than by blindness
Conduction loss: wax, otosclerosis (stapes immobile)
Harmful noise: gunfire, rock music, work (without protection)