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Exposure to high-level sounds, including music, produces a variety of physiological changes in the auditory system that in turn produce a variety of perceptual effects. Damage to the outer hair cells within the cochlea leads to a loss of sensitivity to weak sounds, loudness recruitment (a more rapid than normal growth of loudness with increasing sound level and a consequent reduced dynamic range), and reduced frequency selectivity. Damage to inner hair cells and/or synapses can lead to degeneration of neurons in the auditory nerve and hence to a reduced flow of information to the brain, even when audiometric thresholds remain normal. This leads generally to poorer auditory discrimination and may contribute especially to reduced sensitivity to the temporal fine structure of sounds and to poor pitch perception. Hearing aids compensate to some extent for the effects of threshold elevation and loudness recruitment by the use of multi-channel amplitude compression, but they do not compensate for reduced frequency selectivity or loss of inner hair cells/synapses/neurons. The multi-channel compression processing used in hearing aids can impair some aspects of the perception of music, such as the ability to hear out one instrument or voice from a mixture. The limited frequency range and irregular frequency response of most hearing aids is associated with poor sound quality for music. Finally, systems for reducing acoustic feedback can have undesirable side effects when listening to music.
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Music-induced hearing loss (MIHL) is increasingly well-recognised as a problem, not just for audiences and musicians but also, though less well-reported, for sound engineers and other production professionals. Whilst hearing protection technology is becoming increasingly effective, there remain concerns amongst professionals that their ability to perform their job will inevitably be affected by any form of protection. This paper reports the results of a pilot survey of 230 workers and students in the sound and music industries, examining attitudes towards hearing risk and protection and patterns of HP use.
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The number of people using portable audio players has increased significantly over the recent years. This implies the rise in the number of people having hearing loss problems. Therefore, there is a need to find appropriate procedures that simplify the process of the hearing problem detection. Investigations performed show that audiometric tests may not be sufficient to assess hearing in young people. Contrarily, the obtained results indicate the importance of loudness scaling tests in the process of hearing impairment measurements. a method for enhancing existing loudness scaling tests and its main features are described in the paper and compared with the LGOB (Loudness Growth in 1/2-octave bands) procedure, both created as applications implemented on a PC platform. The application designed is also used for setting too soft, comfortable and too loud sound levels when listening to music. The comparison results are shown and discussed.
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Music festivals are a large contributor to leisure noise/sound exposure for many people. Several days with repeated attendance to concerts can put the ears to a test they might not handle. It is well known that concerts can give "cotton" in the ear, often accompanied with a ringing sound. These conditions, more formally known as temporary threshold shift and tinnitus, are often gone within the next day or days. Since music festivals consist of many concerts, the damage potential is even higher at festivals than single concerts. in this study eight music festival participants, at two different Norwegian festivals, measured their hearing both before and after each festival day. Hearing threshold levels and distortion product otoacoustic emission levels were measured. in addition each person wore a sound dose meter recording one minute equivalent levels. An exposure/response relationship is looked into, testing the equal energy hypothesis used in most occupational regulations and concert guidelines. The results show that the ears are really put to the test during music festivals, but also indicates that the hearing can cope with such exposures.
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Music-Induced Hearing Loss (MIHL) is a special case of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) insofar as the methodology of quantification is concerned, while it presents a particularly acute challenge in respect of music's conflicting demands. These include the desire, particularly in the young, to gain euphoria from music which may be loud enough to traumatize the cochlea. If going to a loud music event were to produce actual physical pain or giddiness we would not do it. Enigmatically, the cochlea does not possess pain receptors. Maybe this is because the evolution of our very wide dynamic range (120+dB) seems to have obviated the need, at least up until modern times. But now the music industry appears to be going through a phase of believing that amplification with compression is necessary to bring music alive and that modern music capabilities constitute an important new cultural modality. To hearing-industry professionals, although the contra-indications of exposure to loud sound are clear, the message is ignored. By now we have incredible macroscopic and microscopic detail about cochlear mechanisms, but perhaps we do not have a sufficiently good holistic model of how they all work together to make a convincing case? There is also the issue that our best measures of measuring audibility lack precision due to huge data variability, the source of which has never been explained. Our presentation draws together the key issues and reviews two of our early results to restate the problem. The first result concerns what we in 1998 termed "latent hearing loss" due to the rise in preclinical damage to the outer hair cell population measured using click-evoked otoacoustic emissions (OAE). We showed that this can be determined with a better overview than pure tone thresholds and thus can serve as the basis of personal dosimetry e.g. for those who frequently dose-up on loud music. The second result questions the traditional assumption that the frequency-place map is fixed in the manner depicted by the grid of a standard audiogram. We re-introduce our 1987 model which expresses the leading edge of the excitation pattern in spatial coordinates and show that many kinds of hearing data are actually consistent with the notion that mapping from frequency to place is dynamic. The potential mechanism responsible follows the suggestion by Henson that the type IV fibrocytes of the spiral ligament actively tension the radial fibres of the basilar membrane. There is substantial recent literature to support this view and the relevance to this presentation is these cells appear to be the direct targets of noise-fatigue. Taken together we have the key ingredients to explain the so-called "half-octave shift", a key indicator of fatigue. We will present new evidence that we can quantify this behaviour readily in humans during the usual click-evoked OAE test. Thus the model accounts for variability in pure tone thresholds, and may provide a direct measure of susceptibility to fatigue given directly by the OAE test. We outline several other consequences from this model such as a new distinction possible between place pitch and periodicity pitch. Since the music is strongly carried by the timing of neural responses, music-goers can be oblivious to the onslaught of cochlear damage which will eventually affect speech perception and ruin their thriving social lives. A clear message of this presentation is that it is not true that there is no human cost for unjustified or extreme amplification. The OAE technology gives us the capability, not just to track the growth of hidden cochlear damage, but also the mechanical operation of the fibrocytes through a process which is outlined. We should be using, in moderation, the OAE technology for personal dosimetry in respect of MIHL.
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Recreational music exposure is a potential risk factor for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Standard hearing protectors can be worn to reduce the exposure level, but their typical attenuation characteristics might distort the music's spectrum and hence reduce the listening quality. Therefore, new augmented hearing protectors have been designed with modified attenuation characteristics to combine hearing protection and listening comfort. This study evaluates temporary effects on cochlear status after music exposure. During exposure, five different types of commercially available hearing protectors are worn, all commonly used during leisure time music exposure. Four of them are augmented premolded earplugs, the fifth type is an inexpensive standard earplug frequently distributed by music events’ organization. During five different test sessions, participants have worn one particular protector while listening to popular music. Distortion Product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) have been measured directly before and after music exposure. The decline in DPOAE response before and after noise exposure appears to be significantly different for the different types of hearing protectors, with two types of musician earplug showing a more systematic decline than the two other types and the standard earplug. This decrease is small compared to clinically relevant DPOAE variation. However, the exposure itself was also limited (half an hour) and the participants were explicitly instructed to use hearing protectors. Hence, the fact that even in those controlled conditions systematic effects on cochlear status are measurable warrants further research about protection achieved in real exposure conditions.
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A new measurement system has been developed for hearing research. Targeted especially for otoacoustic emissions, it is flexible enough for a variety of tests. Performance improvements include extended bandwidth, reduced distortion, higher SPL up to 90 dB SPL, and lower noise. Traditionally, hearing research has been limited to 5 to 10 kHz, due to the difficulty of controlling acoustic pressure at the tympanic membrane. This system can be combined with Forward Pressure Level techniques for accurate prediction of SPLs up to 20 kHz. The system consists of a probe with three drivers and four microphones, along with appropriate amplifiers and the calibrator. This system can measure high frequency otoacoustic emissions as a potential indicator of early onset of hearing loss.
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Our ability to hear is reflected in low-level acoustic signals emitted from the ear. These otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) can be measured with an acoustic probe assembly coupling one or more small loudspeakers and microphones into the sealed ear canal. The electroacoustic instrumentation of commercial probe systems allow for detailed studies of OAEs emitted between 0.5 and 6-8 kHz. Few studies report OAE measurements below 0.5 kHz. This paper is a preliminary report of an OAE probe aimed at making OAE measurements from 0.03 to 3 kHz. The range 0.5-3 kHz was included to study lower-frequency OAEs with reference to standard-range OAEs.
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Hearing aids have come a long way in providing significant improvements in general sound quality as well as signal processing features for optimum sound delivery in view of the hearing loss of the user. Working under very serious constraints both in size and power supply, highly sophisticated and custom designed DSP systems are used to implement directional microphone systems, noise reduction as well as feedback suppression in order to emphasize the very important speech signals. Some of these processing schemes are not always desirable for music presentation and special set-ups must be made available to reach good sound quality on music reproduction. Recently, it has been accomplished to implement wireless connectivity between hearing aids and remote devices including mobile phones. This has started a new era where the utility of hearing aids has been significantly enhanced. An overview of the state of art technology in the field of hearing aids as well as the future perspectives will be given.
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Overexposure to loud music can cause tinnitus, but musical stimulation at a well adjusted loudness level can be also a key strategy for its treatment. in this conference on Music Induced Hearing Disorders, we report on our music-based technologies for tinnitus treatment. in this context, we introduce TINNET, an EU-funded multidisciplinary network currently investigating, among others, the effect of these technologies on different tinnitus subtypes. TINNET also focuses on the identification of clinical characteristics, neuronal correlates, and molecular genetics of these subtypes. Furthermore, we present the results of a pilot study funded by TINNET. The study evaluated the effect of a novel sound therapy highly rooted on music technology. The study revealed promising results and it also identified a crucial problem experienced by the patients: Due to their lack of appropriate ear training, it was difficult for them to perform an accurate pitch match. To address this challenge, we present our approach aiming at developing a set of tools for ear training. We propose such training to be essential to effectively apply any therapy which relies on a precise pitch match.
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