Re: any ideas?

[Peter Lennox <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The first part does sound a little like "blindsight", where people can react
at significantly better than chance to items in the 'dead area' in cases of
hemispheric neglect (Milner and Goodale, and others). This has been ascribed
to different pathways, the 'what' and 'how' pathways, where the latter deal
with a great deal of material that never really achieves conscious
representation.
Although a lady in Lausanne (Suzanne Clarke, I think -I'm sorry, I don't
have the reference here) has being doing some work to establish evidence for
similarly parallel processing pathways in audition - under the
'what-and-where' banner, I've not heard of a 'deafhearing' equivalent to
blindsight - if such equivalence were established, it would be quite
significant for models of auditory perception! Allowing for the speculation
that such equivalent could exist, then someone reacting to an auditory
stimulus of which they can have no conscious acknowledgement is not so
strange. Unfortunately, I've never heard of blindsight (which in any case is
usually the result of particular insult to brain tissue, isn't it?) being
developed by some training regime or other, to provide a substitute for
'proper' vision.
I'd be interested to hear more on this, from anyone knowledgeable in this
area.
regards
ppl
----- Original Message -----
From: "Monita Chatterjee" <mchatterjee@HEI.ORG>
To: <AUDITORY@LISTS.MCGILL.CA>
Sent: 30 December 2003 01:05
Subject: any ideas?


> Dear list, I just received the following email from an individual with
> hearing loss. Any thoughts/experience specific to her questions would be
> appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Monita Chatterjee
>
> -----------------
> Dr. Chatterjee,
>   I have a question that has been bugging me for some time.  I was
diagnosed
> as going deaf when I was 12.  My father is profoundly deaf but the
majority
> of his hearing loss occurred within a 10 year period ending around the end
> of puberty.  I am moderately deaf at the age of 41 and started wearing
> hearing aides at the age of 29.  No one else in our family was hard of
> hearing until after the age of 60.
>   My question follows the next described situation.  My father, who one
must
> now scream at for there to be any understanding (he wears behind the ear
> aides on both ears), will at times repeat ideas or fragments of
converstions
> when he is in the room but not participating in a conversation.  There
> doesn't seem to be any acknowledgment on his part that he is indeed
hearing
> any of these ideas.  Minutes later he will repeat these ideas as if they
> were his own.
>   My husband has repeated this to me as well.  That I have been, for the
10
> 1/2 yrs that we have been together,  done this same thing.  When it has
been
> pointed out to me right when it happens, I swear I did not hear anything.
I
> do believe that I am hearing this, my cochlea is transmitting this to the
> part of my brain that hears, yet I cannot say that I have heard.  I have
met
> other deaf individuals that have happened this to them.
>   The aforementioned situation occurs even when I am not wearing my aides.
> What is happening?
>   My question is this: is there any research going on in this area?
Perhaps
> the connection between my cochlea and the part of the brain that processes
> the stimuli is defective?  Could it be rectified?  Is anyone studying
this?
> What is this called?  Since I know that I am not alone in this condition,
I
> can only assume that this a quite common condition.  Is there anything I
can
> do to lessen this, or learn to hear what stimulus is being received by my
> brain?
>   Also, when I wake after a particularly good rest, why can I hear noise
> better?  I can turn the TV on for my children and can hear the "noise" of
it
> better at a lower volume.  My comprehension may or may not be better at a
> lower volume on those days, but what I really notice is the noise that I
can
> acknowledge at a lower volume.
>   I will await any type of answer that you can provide.  If this is not in
> your area of expertise, please feel free to forward my questions to
someone
> who is knowledgable in this area.
>
> -------------------------------------
>
>