what is the effect of age on your hearing?

Question

this is my science fair projects.....please try to an hypothesis

how does age change your hearing...this is wat i want to know

Answer 1

We are born with a set of sensory cells, and at about age 18 we slowly start to lose them," says Hinrich Staecker, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. But because age-related hearing loss, called presbycusis, progresses so slowly, most people don't notice any changes until well after the age of 50. Presbycusis, which usually affects both ears equally, is most commonly caused by gradual changes in the inner ear. As people age, structures of the ear can become less responsive to sound waves, contributing to hearing loss. People don't just hear through their ears--they hear with their brains. A vibration, which can be transformed into the sound of moderate rainfall, a rock lyric, or the blast of a chainsaw, is first picked up by the ears and then 'read' by the brain. The ear is made up of three parts: the outer ear (pinna or auricle), the middle ear, which includes the eardrum (tympanic membrane), and the inner ear (cochlea), which is shaped like a snail shell and lined with tiny hairs. Hearing loss occurs when the tiny hairs inside the cochlea are damaged or die, a common occurrence as people age. Hair cells, which pick up sound waves and transform them into nerve impulses, do not regenerate. That's why most hearing loss is irreversible. Sound enters the outer ear and strikes the eardrum, causing it to vibrate. The eardrum's vibrations are amplified through the chamber of the middle ear along three tiny interconnected bones, named for their shapes--hammer (malleus), anvil (incus), and stirrup (stapes)--which pass on the vibrations of sound waves to the cochlea. The brain interprets the nerve impulses from the cochlea as the ring of a doorbell or telephone, words being spoken, or the honk of a car horn. The combination of pitches, or frequencies, give different sounds their distinctive qualities. The brain also uses the source and direction of the sound and loudness as clues to decipher messages. People lose their hearing when they age because of gradual changes in their entire auditory system, and sometimes the loss occurs due to complex changes along the nerve pathways to the brain. It's believed that presbycusis is usually caused by disorders of the inner ear or auditory nerve (sensorineural disorders). It may also be caused by changes in the blood supply to the ear because of heart disease, high blood pressure, blood vessel conditions caused by diabetes, or other circulatory problems. The loss may be mild, moderate, or severe. Sounds often seem less clear and lower in volume for a person with presbycusis. The most common symptoms include sounds of mumbled or slurred speech by others; difficulty in distinguishing high-pitched sounds; difficulty in understanding conversations, particularly when there is background noise; hearing men's voices more easily than women's; and increased sensitivity to loud noises. Age-related hearing loss first affects the ability to hear the highest pitches and only later affects lower pitches. Loss of the ability to hear high-pitched sounds such as 's' and 'th' often makes it more difficult to tell them apart. Understanding the consonant sounds in speech is dependent upon our ability to hear high pitches, says James K. Kane, Ph.D., an audiologist and scientific reviewer in the FDA's Office of Device Evaluation. "If one cannot hear the high-pitched sounds, speech becomes less intelligible." To lessen the severity of age-related hearing loss, the following is recommended:
1. Get regular hearing tests.
2. Limit the amount of noise that enters the ear.
3. Maintain normal volume for music and other forms of
entertainment.
4. Protect your hearing by wearing earplugs in noisy
environments, such as when mowing the lawn or using
power equipment.

Answer 2

1. The cochlea's physical properties change with age (it becomes slightly more rigid) and this leads to loss of high frequency hearing. Teenagers can hear higher frequencies than adults.
2. Permanent nerve damage of the hair cell bundles within the cochlea is cumulative, so adults will, later in life, have lost the ability to distinguish other frequencies as well.
3. I have one frequency of tinnitus in my left ear, and three in my right. It's annoying. I got the ones in my right ear as a result of the flu in 2003. I don't recall any event associated with the onset in my left ear. It's not going away, and, as I get older, I expect more tinnitus frequencies to be added. Getting old sucks.

So... speak up, please.

Answer 3

Older people are less likely to hear the higher notes, eg children can hear bats but adults can't. As the hairs in the inner hair disappear so the hearing gets worse, if they find a cure for baldness they could restore hearing for many deaf people

Answer 4

Due to measles as a child and due to far too many clouts around the head from my father then, I lost and ear drum (it disintegrated after one perforation too many) so even though I had hearing off the bone, they labelled that ear deaf at age fifteen.

My other ear was good... and I seldom missed a thing... but since I've gotten older, I notice one or two things that make me realise my hearing's not so good as it used to be.

I turn the sound up higher on the TV and it annoys my son.

I say "sorry" far too many times, because I miss soft tones, or just one tiny phrase or word... and have to have it repeated maybe three to four times, especially on the phone, unless the person speaking is facing me.

And with Asperger Syndrome, my son seldom is facing me when he speaks to me, and never empathises, or has the patience with me, as I have with his moods, that I'd appreciate.

I also have sharp pains in both my ears whenever it is windy, just like when I was young, but had outgrown inside my twenties.

I get infections easier in my throat of late, in poorer weather, or, if I get water in my ears.

I can't wear headsets, nor hearing aids, as they hurt the tubes inside my ear-to-throat and any interfence by mobiles, or radios etc, seriously hurts too.

I am rising sixty-two and so I guess, this may be part of the ageing process anyway... but, it is also part of old injury's sustained in youth.

My mum went very deaf after fifty, but could hear what she wanted to hear and though she wore a hearing aid, she shut it off to shut people out!

My daughter has problem ears, has done all her life, glue ear... grommets twice, they failed... and she often missed hearing you, when you called her name.

But somehow, for most of our lives, we've all winged it on a prayer... and, very few people even know I'm deaf at all.

I read body and lips and always face people, and read their expressions all the time, I am a people watcher, since I write character, and being fast thinking by nature, and physically intuitive by nature, due to being a natural psychic medium, I'm usually a leap ahead of them anyway;-)

If a person carries a white stick... people are far more understanding, they know instantly that the person is visually impaired. They make allowances.

With deafness, there is great intolerance and a lack of understanding... and yes, often, much anger and impatience and the rude assumption... that the person is quite stupid... an assumption that, they very quickly bin and never make again... if I'm the one they choose to make it on;-)

use all, or any, or none, of this... hope it helps.

spell checker not working, i'm feeling too tired and too lazy to edit!








Hope some of this helps.

Answer 5

Degeneration of the senses can happen with age.
Often this is accelerated in the hearing with damage inflicted by working in noisy factories or failing to wear earphones, because they are not cool.
Allowing yourself to be exposed to loud music, especially through earphones can do a lot of damage.
I have mild tinnitus, this was brought on by a bout of flue

Answer 6

1

Answer 7

I know your ears keep on growing throughout your life I should think deafness depends on your job etc e.g. if you were A band member and you stood close to A speaker that would obviously affect your hearing, also genetics play A big part in everything, so deafness could be in your genes.

Answer 8

Hang on! you young whippersnapper while I get my hearing horn !

Right, I'm at a good age now and my hearing has deteriorated ... but not yet to hearing aid use.

Answer 9

Pardon?

Answer 10

What?