Subject: Re: any ideas? From: Pierre Divenyi <pdivenyi(at)EBIRE.ORG> Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 08:53:52 -0800Monita, If I were you, I would pick up the phone and discuss the case with Arnold Starr (UC Irvine) who has been studying auditory neuropathy for quite some time. Pierre At 05:05 PM 12/29/2003 -0800, Monita Chatterjee wrote: >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. > >-------------------------------------