Small Changes in Hearing Can Affect Your Brain

Your brain develops in a different way than normal if you're born with loss of hearing. Is that surprising to you? That's because we commonly think about brains in the wrong way. Your mind, you believe, is a static object: it only changes because of damage or trauma. But brains are really more dynamic than that.

Your Brain is Impacted by Hearing

You've probably heard of the concept that, as one sense diminishes, the other four senses will become more powerful in order to compensate. The well-known example is usually vision: your senses of smell, taste, and hearing will become stronger to compensate for loss of vision.

That hasn't been proven in the medical literature, but as is the case with all good myths, there might be a nugget of truth in there somewhere. Because the architecture of your brain can be and is altered by loss of hearing. It's open to debate how much this holds true in adults, but we know it's true in children.

CT scans and other research on children who have loss of hearing reveal that their brains physically change their structures, changing the hearing centers of the brain to visual centers.

The newest studies have gone on to discover that the brain's architecture can be impacted by even slight hearing loss.

How Hearing Loss Changes The Brain

When all five senses are functioning, the brain dedicates a specific amount of space (and power) to each one. A specific amount of brain power goes towards interpreting touch, a certain amount towards hearing or vision, and etc. When your young, your brain is very pliable and that's when these pathways are being formed and this architecture is being set up.

Established literature had already confirmed that in children with total or near-total loss of hearing, the brain altered its general architecture. The space that would normally be dedicated to hearing is instead reconfigured to boost visual perception. The brain gives more space and more power to the senses that are providing the most information.

Minor to Medium Hearing Loss Also Triggers Changes

What's unexpected is that this same rearrangement has been discovered in children with mild to medium hearing loss also.

These brain alterations won't result in superpowers or substantial behavioral changes, to be clear. Helping individuals adjust to loss of hearing appears to be a more practical interpretation.

A Relationship That Has Been Strong For a Long Time

The modification in the brains of children definitely has far reaching repercussions. Hearing loss is frequently a result of long term noise related or age related hearing damage meaning that the majority of people who suffer from it are adults. Is hearing loss modifying their brains, too?

Noise damage, according to evidence, can actually cause inflammation in certain areas of the brain. Other evidence has connected untreated hearing loss with higher chances for anxiety, dementia, and depression. So even though it's not certain whether the other senses are enhanced by hearing loss we do know it alters the brain.

People from around the US have anecdotally backed this up.

Your General Health is Impacted by Hearing Loss

That loss of hearing can have such a significant impact on the brain is more than simple trivial insight. It reminds us all of the relevant and intrinsic connections between your brain and your senses.

When loss of hearing develops, there are commonly substantial and recognizable mental health effects. So that you can be prepared for these consequences you need to be cognizant of them. And the more educated you are, the more you can take the appropriate steps to preserve your quality of life.

Many factors will define how much your hearing loss will physically change your brain (including your age, older brains tend to firm up that structure and new neural pathways are harder to establish as a result). But you can be certain that neglected hearing loss will have an influence on your brain, regardless of how mild it is, and no matter how old you are.