Hear The Music

On August 10, 2017 some American diplomats stationed in Cuba complained of some auditory and some vestibular symptoms. Recently one of our other editors at HearingHealthMatters.org, Brian Taylor, reported on some opinions from Dr. Jerry Punch about the possible cause. Ultrasound, infrasound, and other sources have been proposed as the possible cause of these complaints. There is no evidence in

Serotonin is a massively large molecule. In fact, it is so large that it cannot cross the blood brain barrier. We can’t simply take Serotonin orally or eat foods that have high levels of Serotonin- this won’t be able to get to the brain. Serotonin is like Las Vegas- what happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas….or so I

In part 1 of this blog series several issues were touched upon such as the relative uselessness of using gross measures such as puretone testing to determine the true nature of hearing loss from loud music or loud noise.  In short, puretone hearing loss thresholds (and also otoacoustic emission (OAE) testing) are rather gross, albeit convenient, measures of hearing loss. 

There have been a number of studies over the years trying to gauge the benefits, if any, of moderation and taking breaks away from loud noise or music. The short answer is that we are not really sure, but possibly. How is that for fence sitting? Intuitively it does make sense that reducing the overall “time weighted” average exposure of loud music

I recall sitting in my very first audiology class in 1979 (when tuning forks had just been invented and all hard of hearing people were using wither body worn hearing aids or large tin horns in their ears) and the instructor was trying to explain the difference in calibration between using earphones (minimal audible pressure) and loudspeakers (minimal audible field)

If you have been reading earlier parts of this blog series, I had only promised to write a 2-parter.  Well, here is part 3! The reason for this rogue insertion of yet another installment to this series is the number of emails that I have received about how hearing protection can actually be assessed using real ear measurement – hence,

In part 1 of this blog series, I had talked about a patient who had a relatively rare 3000 Hz noise (music) induced hearing loss notch and not the more common one at 4000 Hz or 6000 Hz.  The ear canal resonance was at 2000 Hz as compared as opposed to the more common “average” of around 2700 Hz.  The lower frequency

Whenever I fit hearing protection such as Musicians’ Earplugs, I verify the function using real ear measurement.  Of course, in the design of Musicians’ Earplugs there is a correct assumption that the acoustic gain that is generated will offset the insertion loss caused by the occluding earmold.  That is, if people have a 2700 Hz resonance due their outer ear,

Rachel Hottle is the guest contributor to this week’s blog at HearTheMusic.  Rachel is a fourth-year undergraduate at Swarthmore College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she is studying music and biology. This summer she is volunteering as a research assistant in the SMARTlab (Science of Music, Auditory Research, and Technology) at Ryerson University. She hopes to pursue graduate study in the

We are a bag of bio-chemicals mixed in with a lot of water and some other tissues and bone that give us structure.  My waste-line may be a slim 34” at sea level, but over 35” at the top of Aspen Mountain- we are held together by atmospheric pressure, bones and other tissues- but what makes us go round are