Auditory Illusions

Everybody knows about optical illusions, but what about auditory illusions? Check out this video demonstrating 4 different auditory illusions including the McGurk Effect , Tritone Paradox , and Shepard Tone Illusion .

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Noise Hyper-Sensitivity in Kids

Although we mainly see kids for hearing loss due to fluid in the ears, chronic ear infections , or eustachian tube dysfunction , every so often, a child will show up with the exact opposite problem. The child hears just fine, but suffers from noise hypersensitivity, also known as auditory hypersensitivity. Such children are overwhelmed from everyday noises whether doorbells, sirens, key clanking, etc; typically high-pitched sounds. The hands will go over the ears in an attempt to dampe…

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New Video on Newborn Hearing Testing

Given how often we see newborns in need of hearing testing , we have produced a video showing how the two main types of non-verbal hearing tests are performed today: Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) and Otoacoustic Emission (OAE). Given newborns can not communicate whether they can hear or not, such hearing tests depend on the ability to detect nerve signals transmitting sound information from the ear all the way to the brain. This type of test is much like an EKG which can detect the el…

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Toddlers Unable to Tell If They Mispronounce a Word (Thereby Can't Auto-Correct)

Older children and adults constantly monitor what they say and automatically correct or self-adjust when they hear a peach error... oops, sorry I meant to say "speech" error. Such auditory feedback error correction however is not something we are born with. Rather it seems to be a skill that develops sometime between ages 2 and 4 years according to a new study . " Researchers had adults, four-year-olds, and two-year-olds say “bed” repeatedly. But scientists filtered th…

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Hearing Loss Can Can Accelerate Brain Volume Loss

Everyone has heard of the saying "If you don't use it, you will lose it." Well, when it comes to hearing loss , that seems to apply to not just hearing per se, but the actual structure of the brain! Researchers studied MRI scans of older individuals (ages 60-77) with hearing loss , they found less brain volume in the auditory cortex of the brain which is not entirely surprising. What was surprising was that there was less brain activity on functional MRI scans when these in…

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Non-Sedated ABR & OAE Now Offered at Fauquier ENT

What is ABR/OAE? ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response) as well as OAE (Oto-Acoustic Emission) are specialized hearing tests that can evaluate whether a child/infant/newborn can hear without requiring them to respond. These tests are completely non-invasive. Just like an EKG measures a heart's electrical activity using little stickers, ABR/OAE testing checks out the electrical activity from the ear to the brain. Special stickers on the head enable us to "see" whether the brain &…

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