Why Isn't There Enough Research in Reversible Hearing Loss?

Like many studies in science. Many times there are studies saying "yes it can be done" or "no it cannot".

Despite this due to the concerning number of young adults these days suffering from Noise Induced Hearing Loss (including myself). And large amounts of veterans suffering from NIHL.

I am not grasping the idea of why there isn't enough research in the idea of reversible sudden hearing loss.

 

Hi Taylor,

Thanks for your message. If you want to head over to the research section and have a look at Frequency Therapeutics, Otonomy, and Auris Medical and Autifony Therapeutics to name a few there is work being done in this field. I agree it needs much more money behind this. It's such a complicated thing to repair inner ear damage

 

I know you don't really see it, but there has been quite a flurry of activity recently regarding the inner-ear. Some equate it to what the field of ophthalmology went through about 5-10 years ago.

The amount of research papers have also grown exponentially in recent years. It is just frustrating because for all this work to pay off, it will take a little time. But you can know that we have not been forgotten as there is more interest and money pouring into this field now than there has ever been before. Keep strong!

 

The problem is in the brain. scientists already demonstrated that regeneration of inner ear cell (ext and int) don't solve the tinnitus. The brain require a lot of time to "recover". The same time of habituation. So there is no interest by scientific community in the problem solving. It's only fundraising for young people at university.

 

This is interesting. Which scientists demonstrated this?

 

I do not believe this to be true. Regeneration of hair cells has never been achieved in humans. Regeneration of auditory neuronal fibers has never even been achieved in animals, as far as I know.

On the other hand, we do know that in some cases people with severe deafness and tinnitus whose hearing loss is such that they can get cochlear implants, do sometimes report that their tinnitus is radically diminished. (Of course, CIs can also cause tinnitus in those who didn't already have it). There are also reports of people with longstanding tinnitus as a result of structural hearing impairment of some kind having their tinnitus improve when the structural problem is corrected. The internet is also full of anecdotes from people who say that using hearing aids to improve their hearing significantly reduces the volume and intensity of their tinnitus (again, this is certainly not true for everyone).

I'd say the bottom line is that we don't have the data, and we'll find out when we find out, but I'm really, really curious where you believe scientists have "demonstrated" this.

The idea that tinnitus is basically a brain reorganization problem, in no way implies that restoration of normal hearing would not reduce the tinnitus. Brain reorganization is ongoing and constant, so it's an extremely safe bet that restoring hearing acuity in someone who has lost it, will cause some kind of changes in the brain; in fact there's no way that could not be the case. Whether or not it'll be beneficial to tinnitus in general remains to be seen, but there are certainly good reasons to think it might.

 

There is a hell of a lot of research in regeneration in recent years, check the research forum please.

 

I don't know how much research is being conducted now, but it will gain more attention in the years to come. Young soldiers are coming back from overseas with T and hearing loss from all the gunfire and demolition, so it is becoming a problem the scientific/medical community can't ignore.

 

I think that the field of diagnostics in particular! is not sufficiently illuminated.
For example, I would definitely like to know whether or not there is any damage to the inner ear. But the ENT doctor can't tell you.

 

Well it would help if ent's would start using high-frequency hearing tests instead of the ones that only go to 8000 hz. You can bet that they can't tell you then.

 

Optical Coherence Tomography - this is not the holy grail for tinnitus diagnostics, but it looks like a big step in the right direction and might help for diagnosing some forms of T - a machine that can see into the middle ear and visualize the mechanics happening in there.

Right now, the only way to visualize the middle ear is with exploratory surgery. A non-invasive approach would be a huge improvement.

An excerpt:

Adamson says the OCT system offers a non-invasive way to explore the middle ear. “For some disorders, the alternative is exploratory surgery,” he explains. “You have to cut the ear drum open to get a look inside and with Optical Coherence Tomography you can look through the ear drum and see what’s inside without having to open the ear drum.”

http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/ctv-news...y-offers-detailed-look-at-inner-ear-1.3237168

http://www.octnews.org/articles/7285073/university-of-southern-california-receives-nih-gra/

 

There's a bit of confusion between middle ear and inner ear in the first article (title and URL talk about inner ear, but the quote is about middle ear). The second one talks about the cochlea (inner ear).

 

I agree. But it is still very course and not able to tell us about unusual damage in the inner ear. (Usual damage is because of ageing). First of all it needs to be known what amount of "high frequency" hearing loss is because of this ageing process. I am not sure about the decline in high frequency hearing loss due to age, but it probably starts very early (20/25 years and over?).

 

YEP! I just said this in another forum. It has nothing to do with the ears. We need to jump start our brains. It's like there is a short circuit.

 

Can you please link to the scientific papers claiming this?

 

Nobody has proven this, and there are no scientific papers stating this.

 

we don't need any newspapers because a lot of people without hearing problem, have tinnitus. (perfect hearing but with tinnitus) like @Michelle Gyder sayd is like a short circuit that involve the auditory pathways in brain and many many other structures inside it. the research on the regeneration of these cells is especially important for children who are born deaf or others conditions

 

Are you sure he has “perfect hearing? Did they do a high frequency hearing test up to 21.000khz on this person. I beg to differ in that i don’t believe there is such a thing as perfect hearing.

 

The test over 11khz don't mean anything for human. Human hearing don't go over the range of 8 -11. Your "21000" is non sense.

 

More like 20 Hz to 20 kHz.
It's actually the reason CDs are sampled at 44100 Hz, twice our hearing.

 

Actually that is not true at all. Even though we might not be able to hear certain frequencies that go above our perceived hearing range, does not mean that these are not are non-existant and that our hearing and brain does not perceive them. this also means that these frequencies that we might not be able to hear are still able to cause us potential damage that we just might not be aware off.

And human hearing does go up to 20.000hz. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_range.

 

Then on top of that you also have certain frequencies that you can just feel and not hear (such as certain bass).

 

ok when you have coherent arguments i'll participate to the discussion between keyboard scientists and the nothing.

 

I'll give you one reason given me by my Father's last Audiologist. "The ear is a thing we know least about in the body". Why? The deep, neurological structural units are arranged in incredible complexity inside an impenetrable bony case the size of a pea. Diagnosis at autopsy is about all we have beyond the clues provided by Audiology.