Most people do quite well with hearing aids, but occasionally, they don't do as well as expected. There is new research on cochlear "Dead Zones" that may explain why.
A "dead zone" is a region within the cochlea where the hair cells are virtually wiped out and no basilar membrane vibration can be detected. Join Carl Strom (Editor-In-Chief for Hearing Review), interviewing Dr Brian Moore, as Dr. Moore tells why a 70 dBHL loss or greater might be a tip-off to a frequency dead region in the cochlea. Dr Moore explains what a cochlear dead zone might look like on an audiogram and what it might sound like to a patient. He also relates information about the Threshold Equalizing Noise (TEN) test that he developed for identifying cochlear dead zones.
Part 2 looks at the physiological aspects of dead zones, the most successful techniques for applying hearing aid amplification to these regions. The interview concludes with how research on dead zones may impact other research topics like pitch perception and cochlear implant hybrids.
Brian C. Moore, PhD
Guest Speaker: Brian C. Moore, PhD, is Professor of Auditory Perception at the University of Cambridge in England, and his research includes the perception of sound, mechanisms of normal hearing and hearing impairments, relationship of auditory abilities to speech perception, and methods for fitting hearing aids to individuals. He currently serves as president of the Association of Independent Hearing Healthcare Professionals (UK), and is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Acoustical Society of America, and he is an Honorary Fellow of the Belgian Society of Audiology and of the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists. Dr Moore is an associate editor of the International Journal of Audiology and the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America and is a member of the editorial boards of Hearing Research and Audiology and Neurotology. He has written or edited 13 books and over 490 scientific papers and book chapters, including his own books, Cochlear Hearing Loss and An Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing, now in its fifth edition (both available at Amazon.com). In 2003 Dr Moore was awarded the Acoustical Society of America Silver Medal in physiological and psychological acoustics; in 2004 he received the first "International Award in Hearing" from the American Academy of Audiology; in 2008 he was presented with the Award of Merit from the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, as well as the Hugh Knowles Prize for Distinguished Achievement from Northwestern University; and he has twice been awarded the Littler Prize of the British Society of Audiology.
