AES British Section lectures - July 2007

Hearing loss: will we all get it, what are its consequences, and what can the audio industry do to help?

Professor Brian Moore, Cambridge University

About 7% of the population in developed countries have hearing loss sufficient to cause problems in everyday life. Hearing loss is especially common among the elderly, and it is difficult to find a person aged 75 or more who does not have a hearing loss. Hearing loss is associated with a reduced ability to detect weak sounds, especially at high frequencies, but also with various other "distortions" in the way that sound is perceived, among which are reduced frequency selectivity (the ability to "hear out" frequency components of complex sounds), abnormal growth of loudness with increasing level, and reduced sensitivity to temporal fine structure. Simulations of some of these effects will be presented. Ways in which the audio industry can contribute to alleviating the effects of hearing loss will be suggested.

Brian Moore is Professor of Auditory Perception in the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, and an Honorary Fellow of the Belgian Society of Audiology and of the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists. He is President of the Association of Independent Hearing Healthcare Professionals (UK). He is an Associate Editor of The International Journal of Audiology and a member of the Editorial Boards of Hearing Research, and Audiology and Neurotology. He is a consultant for several US and European companies. He has written or edited 12 books and over 400 scientific papers and book chapters. In 2003 he was awarded the Acoustical Society of America Silver Medal in physiological and psychological acoustics. In 2004 he was awarded the first "International Award in Hearing" from the American Academy of Audiology. He has twice been awarded the Littler Prize of the British Society of Audiology. He is wine steward of Wolfson College, Cambridge.

Lecture recording - mp3 format (24.7 MB)

Presentation slides - pdf format (0.6 MB)

Lecture report

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