Acute hearing. Hyperhearing as a feature of the body

Compared to vision, hearing from the point of view of transmitting data to the brain is several times less informative. However, even a slight hearing impairment of 20-30 dB can affect intellectual abilities and immunity to the sense of danger in a certain environment.

The lower absolute threshold of sensation for human hearing is the ability to perceive the ticking of a manual mechanical watch in complete silence at a distance of 6 m from the human ear. A person feels about 300,000 sounds of varying strength and pitch. The range of audible frequencies for people under 25 years old covers from 16–20 Hz to 16–20 kHz. The high-frequency part of the range decreases from year to year, and after 40 years - by 80 Hz every subsequent six months. Low sensitivity to low-frequency sounds protects a person from the constant sensation of low-frequency vibrations and noises of his own body.

An important function of hearing is the localization of a sound source in space. The ability to localize sounds in space develops in the process of spatial orientation. Since the ears are responsible for hearing and balance (“two in one”), it is necessary not only to develop the auditory zones of the brain, but also the spatial orientation zone of the brain. The hearing organs are also connected to the sense of smell, vision, taste and vestibular apparatus. A change in the auditory cortex causes a change in the frontal lobes, which are responsible for complex human thinking and behavior.

About 80% of the information from each ear goes to the opposite hemisphere of the brain. But sounds heard by the left ear are partially processed by the left hemisphere, and vice versa. For example, in the techniques of hidden psychological influence, it is recommended to speak into the right ear when presenting logical information to the interlocutor, and in the left ear when presenting emotional information. When perceiving foreign speech, it is also recommended to perceive it through the right ear, but music through the left. On average, a normal right-handed person hears words 10–14% better in the right ear than in the left. This is especially true for men.

It has been scientifically proven that people with dark skin hear better than people with light skin. Scientists suggest that this is due to the amount of melanin. Black people have more of it. When there is loud noise, more melanin is produced in the inner ear.

In hypnotized persons, hearing is 12 times more sensitive than in a normal state. This also applies to vision, smell and touch.

Noise is one of the most common environmental factors that have a negative impact on the human body. Increased noise intensity above the natural level leads to increased fatigue in humans, a decrease in intellectual abilities, and when it reaches 90–100 decibels and prolonged exposure, to gradual hearing loss. The effect of noise on the human body is not limited to the impact only on the organ of hearing. Noise stimulation is transmitted through the fibers of the auditory nerves to the central and autonomic nervous systems, and through them it affects the internal organs, leading to significant changes in the functional state of the body, causing a stressful state. For example, a person exposed to intense noise expends on average 10–20% more physical and mental effort to maintain the performance achieved at sound levels below 70 dB.

With pulsed and irregular noise, the degree of negative impact of noise increases. Changes in the functional state of the central and autonomic systems occur much earlier and at lower noise levels. Due to exposure to noise, the following autonomic reactions occur: the blood circulation process changes; the pupils dilate, which leads to a decrease in visual acuity; with prolonged noise, the activity of the salivary and gastric glands is inhibited; metabolism accelerates; the electrical activity of the brain changes; muscle potential increases; disturbance in the depth of sleep, up to awakening; Adrenaline levels increase, which corresponds to a stress response. Even low levels of noise can cause anxiety and increase the risk of aggression. Most scientists see a connection between exposure to increased noise levels and the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases and peptic ulcers. The effect of constant noise on the organ of hearing leads to morphological changes. In the cochlea, dystrophic disorders are observed, similar to those observed when exposed to electromagnetic fields, leading to sclerosis (replacement of nerve, sensitive cells that perceive sound with connective tissue). The cochlea and other structures of the hearing organ become saturated with calcium salts and stop perceiving sound - deafness occurs. Similar changes occur in the vestibular apparatus. The organs of hearing and balance suffer from both excessively loud music and sudden body movements (for example, aerobics).

At 120–140 dB (the noise of a low-flying airplane or a rock concert), acoustic injury can occur. A healthy eardrum of a middle-aged person can withstand noise of 110 dB for only one and a half minutes without damage. Noise at a level of 180 dB is considered fatal to humans. The noise weapons that were developed in different countries were supposed to sound at a level of 200 dB.

Ten years ago, research by American scientists showed that prolonged exposure to loud music (4–5 hours) on the hearing organ through headphones from an MP-3 player or at a disco causes thickening and tumors in the nerve fibers connecting the cochlea of ​​the inner ear with the brain. It takes about two days for them to heal. With daily auditory loads on the ears, conditions for cell regeneration are not created, hearing loss occurs, and the more informative right ear suffers first. Listening to music in transport is especially dangerous for hearing, which leads to weakening of the auditory nerve and reduces the immunity of the hearing organ to various infections. Wearing earbuds for just one hour increases the number of bacteria in the ear by 700 times.

Another cause of hearing loss is age-related decline (presbycusis). The reason is the anatomical features of the blood supply to the inner ear. Impaired blood supply is most often caused by vascular atherosclerosis, which develops with age.

This causes constant ringing in the ears (tinnitus). With this disease, fat and calcium metabolism are disrupted, the walls of the arteries thicken, and the arteries themselves narrow. The blood passes through with high pressure, and the presence of a sclerotic plaque causes a certain sound resonance that is heard by the middle ear. One of the signs of vascular atherosclerosis is the appearance of a horizontal fold on the earlobe. Thyroid dysfunction, accompanied by degenerative changes in the inner ear, also leads to tinnitus.

Taking medications such as large doses of aspirin, antibiotics, and some diuretics and heart medications can temporarily impair hearing. Irreversible hearing damage can be caused by aminoglycoside antibiotics (streptomycin, monomycin, neomycin, etc.). They have a negative effect on the auditory and vestibular systems, especially in combination with diuretics (diuretics). Misuse of opiate-based painkillers also often results in hearing loss.

Among the fairly common causes of the development of sensorineural hearing loss and deafness is exposure to pathogenic viruses and bacteria. Particularly dangerous infections in this regard are influenza, sore throat, meningitis and mumps (mumps). Even a simple runny nose can temporarily reduce hearing by 10–15 dB.

Alcoholic drinks increase the negative impact of loud noise on hearing, and citizens who smoke are almost twice as likely to become hard of hearing. Hearing noticeably worsens for 2–3 hours and after eating.

It is necessary to allow your ears to enjoy the silence from time to time! When we listen to silence, the ability to actively listen improves. Walking in the forest, reading literature and sleeping in silence, listening to quiet classical and popular music, “loaded” with high frequencies, on high-quality equipment help restore hearing. At the same time, German researchers argue that the hearing needs constant training to stay in shape, and those who live in constant silence have their hearing weakened no less than that of workers in a forge and press shop. They believe that it is not constant noise that is harmful to the delicate mechanism of the inner ear, but shock loads - individual very loud sounds. Considering that hearing works even during sleep, it is effective to use earplugs that reduce the noise level by 30 dB. At the same time, a person gets enough sleep and gains strength in a shorter time.

Listening, a person instinctively puts his hand to his ear. Placing your palms on your own ears can significantly enhance the perception of sound (the shape of the ears also affects hearing). Modern acoustic measurements show that in this case the hearing threshold increases by 3–10 times (5–10 dB). Once upon a time, bell hats with entrance holes (for sound) disguised in them at the front or at the top were recommended for men and women for street walks. Such headgear resonators excited the cochlea of ​​the inner ear directly through the oval of the skull or special air vents into the external auditory canals of the ears. In the army units of individual countries, metal helmets of a similar design were used for certain types of operations (for example, night reconnaissance). Until now, when fishing, West African fishermen listen to underwater sounds by placing their ear to the handle of a wooden oar lowered into the water, since wood is an excellent conductor of sound. Bushmen from the Kalahari Desert sleep with their ears pressed to the ground in order to quickly detect an approaching predator - after all, the speed of sound waves in solid bodies is 10 times greater than in air.

Back in the 17th century, it was noticed that people with poor hearing hear better in the light than in the dark, and lighting the heads of children suffering from hearing impairment improves their hearing. Today it has been established that with green lighting we hear better, with red lighting we hear worse. Hearing is noticeably reduced even with the head thrown back. Certain odors, such as benzene and geraniol, also impair hearing. Auditory sensitivity improves when determining contours, under the influence of the image of bright light, car headlights, etc.

Vitamin supplements containing antioxidants, beta-carotene, vitamins C and E, and magnesium may help prevent hearing loss. Traditional medicine recommends eating a quarter of a lemon with the peel every day, smearing it with honey. Often, within a week, hearing improves noticeably.

For a long time in Rus', deafness was also cured with the help of copper. You can stick one two-kopeck coin (Soviet style) on the bulge behind the ear, and another on the cheek side of the ear. For dizziness and tinnitus, a gauze bag with grated horseradish was applied to the back of the head. To improve hearing and with neuritis of the auditory nerve, it is recommended daily, 15–20 minutes before bedtime, to peel one clove of good fresh garlic, grind it and drop 2–3 drops of camphor oil into the resulting pulp. Place the resulting mixture in gauze and insert it into the ear that has difficulty hearing. Keep the garlic in your ear until you feel a burning sensation, then remove it and throw it away. If hearing loss affects both ears, then take 2 cloves of garlic accordingly. Perform the procedure until positive results are obtained.

To prevent hearing loss, it is useful to click your jaws, opening your mouth wide, and also chew gum, as this increases blood flow in the auditory areas of the brain.

For the auditory tube, as a preventive measure for otitis media, we can recommend performing the following exercises twice a week:

1. An empty sip (of saliva) with the nose pinched between the fingers.
2. Self-blowing: close your nose and blow into your nose as you blow your nose (under no circumstances should you do this if you have a runny nose).
3. Inhale through one nostril and exhale through the other - alternately (which also improves blood supply to the brain).
4. Take air into your mouth, puff out your cheeks and slowly blow through your lips.
5. Swallow food and water with your nose pinched with your fingers.

There is a relationship between hearing and the condition of the legs. Hearing is enhanced if the feet remain dry. Therefore, it is recommended to wash your feet with cold water more often and not to use synthetic and cotton socks, which quickly become wet from sweat. It is advisable to wear socks made of silk or linen, and white ones, since some dyes form harmful chemical compounds in contact with sweat.

There are also special exercises to develop auditory perception. As you know, the ability to listen preserves your hearing! Half of existing deafness is a consequence of inattention. Developing auditory perception means developing attention and interest. Try reading some text aloud while listening to information on the radio. Then try to repeat the text you read and the information you listened to from memory. You can put two radios on the left and right, tuned to different programs. Listen to two different texts and then highlight the first and second information. Experiments have shown that every person with normal hearing is able to identify an important message for him even from seven messages transmitted simultaneously and with equal volume.

Imagine being able to hear everything that is happening in your body: your heart racing, the blood running through your veins, and even the turning of your eyeballs. And imagine that these sounds accompany you day and night. This is exactly the nightmare that 47-year-old British woman Julie Redfern lives in reality.

Her hearing has become so acute that she picks up sounds that are inaccessible to the average person. She has to refuse lunch with friends in a cafe because she can barely distinguish their speech due to her own chewing. Mrs Redfern now can't eat anything crunchy, like apples or chips, because the crunch literally deafens her. Working as a receptionist has also become a challenge for her because every time the phone on her desk rings, she can hear her eyeballs shaking from the vibrations.

Mrs. Redfern's hearing became unusually acute seven years ago. She even remembers the moment when she first noticed this - shortly after her 40th birthday, the woman was captivated by the computer game Tetris, when she suddenly heard an incomprehensible creak that was heard every time she tracked falling figures with her eyes. “I remember it like it was yesterday. Even then I thought - what is this noise? Then I realized that these were the sounds of my eyes moving. When my husband returned from work, the first thing I did was ask him if he could hear his eyes moving. He looked at me blankly and I began to think that I was going crazy. I asked my friends about it, but no one had such problems,” says Mrs. Redfern.

The doctor to whom she turned with such a complaint said that her age and changes in the body, which often occur completely unexpectedly, were to blame. But the woman was not satisfied with this answer and she went to the Royal Manchester Hospital. There she was diagnosed with superior lunar canal dehiscence syndrome (SLTS), an extremely rare condition that occurs as a result of thinning of the temporal bone in the ear. Some people are born without this bone, and for some it disappears over time. Due to its rarity, the SZVPK was officially recognized only in 1998.

Fortunately, CVD can be treated with surgery. During the 7-hour operation, the surgeon opened Mrs. Redfern's ear and strengthened the temporal bone with a special solution. There was a certain risk of remaining deaf after the operation, but the woman accepted it. “I had to do it. Seven years turned out to be more than enough; I couldn’t stand this state of affairs any longer. The first operation was successful and one ear can now hear as well as before, and Mrs. Redfern is now preparing for surgery on the second ear.

The remark that Mayakovsky “awarded” Kerensky - “What, what? I can’t hear without glasses,” many might say. “Humanity is gradually going deaf,” is the conclusion of audiologists. So let's talk about what misfortunes lead to hearing loss and can they be avoided?

Any hearing impairment (including congenital) is divided into two main groups: sound-conducting and sensorineural hearing loss. With sound conduction, the “delivery” of sound from the external environment to the cochlear receptor is disrupted due to obstacles or damage in the outer and middle ear: sound transmission deteriorates, the person does not hear what is said.

Sensorineural hearing loss affects the inner ear itself - the sensory hair cells of the cochlea. Some of them are “switched off”. Not only does hearing loss occur (an increase in the hearing threshold), but worse - a violation of speech intelligibility (after all, each group of hairs is responsible for a certain pitch of sound). This is the most unfavorable type of hearing loss and is more difficult to treat. But today we’ll talk about diseases and “interference” that disrupt the conductivity of sound.

A little anatomy

To understand the causes of hearing loss, let’s remember the structure of the hearing organ. In addition to the auricle, it consists of three sections - the outer, middle and inner ear. The external auditory canal reduces sound pressure on the eardrum.

Behind the thin and elastic membrane is the area of ​​the middle ear - the tympanic cavity with 3 auditory ossicles: the hammer, the incus and the stirrup. Connected by joints and two muscles (stapedius and tensor tympanic membrane), the bones conduct air vibrations further into the inner ear. In addition, the tympanic cavity communicates with the nasopharynx through the Eustachian (auditory) tube: the air entering from there balances the pressure, protecting the middle and inner ear from injury (that’s why it is recommended to open your mouth during takeoff and landing of an airplane, or other pressure changes). The eustachian tube has another function - evacuation. Thanks to the swallowing reflex (when awake, a person makes one swallowing movement per minute, while sleeping - every five), a vacuum is formed in the auditory tube for a moment, which allows it, like a pump, to draw liquid from the tympanic cavity - exudate produced by the mucous membrane.

The inner ear, separated from the middle ear by a secondary membrane (“round window”), is a cochlea with 2.5 curls. One wall of the cochlea is covered with thousands of tiny hair sensory cells, which perceive sound: transforming the incoming mechanical energy (vibration) into a bioelectric impulse, they transmit it along the auditory nerve further - to the temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex. This is where the analysis and synthesis of the sound we hear takes place.

When the plug doesn't come out

How is it formed? At the entrance to the outer ear there are special sebaceous glands that constantly produce earwax, which has bactericidal properties. Drying, the sulfur, thanks to the movements of the lower jaw (during chewing, talking), is desquamated and removed outward on its own. This is normal. If the sulfur glands are located a little deeper or the external auditory canal itself is more curved, then when water gets into the ear (during washing, bathing), the sulfur swells and, like a cork, clogs the passage, creating a barrier to the sound wave.

Do not remove the wax plug yourself! At a depth of 2.5 cm from the entrance there is a thin eardrum, only 0.1 mm thick. When carelessly manipulating with sharp objects (hairpin, match), it can easily be damaged along with the auditory ossicles, which often leads to complete deafness. Contact only an otolaryngologist: he will wash the wax plug with disinfectant solutions or, if it does not completely cover the external auditory canal, he will remove it using tweezers and hooks.

Don't sneeze on acute otitis media

Often, inflammatory processes in the outer and middle ear - otitis - lead to impaired sound conduction. The most common and dangerous is acute otitis media. Most often it is associated with hypothermia and occurs after a runny nose, acute respiratory infections, flu, and measles: a microbial infection, penetrating from the nasopharynx through the auditory tube into the tympanic cavity, leads to inflammation and thickening of the mucous membrane. The pressure in the middle ear becomes negative in relation to the atmospheric pressure, the eardrum, being strongly stretched, is pressed towards the cavity. In a vacuum state, more exudate is produced, and the evacuation function of the auditory tube is impaired due to swelling of the mucous membrane - the fluid has nowhere to go. If otitis media is not treated, the enzymes in the exudate “eat away” the eardrum - holes appear in it (perforation). Exudate (it is already mucopurulent) is released out. Sound conduction disturbances and hearing loss occur.

As a rule, acute otitis media detected in time is successfully treated therapeutically, even a small perforation of the eardrum soon heals. Hearing is restored.

At the early stage of acute otitis media, when there is no perforation of the eardrum, the following treatment is prescribed:

Antibiotics - they quite effectively affect the microflora of the middle ear, preventing the development of the inflammatory process of the mucous membrane;

Vasoconstrictor nasal drops: for adequate ventilation and equalization of pressure in the middle ear; to reduce the production of exudate and better suction;

Semi-alcohol compresses on the mastoid process to improve blood supply to the middle ear area and tissue nutrition, and in case of a highly developed process - electromagnetic irradiation with ultra-high frequencies or more powerful microwaves as prescribed by a doctor;

Hyperhearing, sensitive hearing, heightened hearing - such diagnoses began to be given to children quite recently. Stunned by the news, parents try their best to make the baby comfortable with sounds, but these attempts are often clumsy and sometimes even do more harm than good. This happens due to a basic misunderstanding of the very concept of hyperhearing. I am writing this article especially for such parents. I am already an adult, but for as long as I can remember, I have had very sensitive and heightened hyperhearing. In this article I will try to describe in a simple and accessible way, using real-life examples, what hyperhearing is, how it feels, and how exactly it manifests itself.

This article is dedicated to all children who have been diagnosed. Once upon a time I was such a child. True, in my time such diagnoses were not made, and any problems with the perception of sounds in children were considered simply strangeness or nervousness. So I was like that - strange and nervous, but I couldn’t explain why.

Today I am an adult, an accomplished person, and only now do I truly understand the reasons for my... I figured out this issue with the help of systemic vector psychology of Yuri Burlan and understanding my own sound vector.

If I could go back to my childhood, I would definitely do so and ask my parents to never turn the TV down when I was doing homework, and not to eat apples at the table. Because it hurts me and is terribly annoying. All I can do is tell you, dear parents of children with hyperhearing, what it’s like to have overly sensitive, heightened hyperhearing. And I really hope that my story will help you in understanding your child.

My sensitive and heightened hearing: from early childhood to today

Warning! I am an ordinary person and I have no medical education. In this article, I try to show in ordinary words, with examples, how sensitive hearing is - in my own sensations. Please do not consider this article as medical. And at the same time, take the article seriously - even if some examples seem strange to you, for a person with hyperhearing they are real.

When I was little, for the summer, they took me to my grandmother in the village. I remember very well that new sounds appeared in the village that were not in the city. Even then, at about 5 years old, I realized that some sounds could drive me crazy. When everyone fell asleep and there was silence in the house, diluted only by the sniffling of relatives, the mice woke up and rustling began. One of them was rustling under grandma’s bed in the next room, the other was “playing football” with nuts in the attic. I wasn't afraid of mice. But their rustling did not let me sleep. I just couldn't sleep and that's all. This sound became a real curse for me. Every year there were more and more such curse sounds. For example, the sound of eating an apple. Well, what's wrong with it? - someone will say. For me, this is real torture - especially if the person next to me is eating an apple. It seems that the high, screeching notes that the apple makes are literally eating into my brain, I can’t do anything until this torture is over. And here are other sounds - shuffling feet, sniffling, dripping water from a tap. It always amazes me that no one really hears all this and doesn’t annoy anyone. Then why am I so special, where do I get this heightened hyperhearing? I think that these sounds are different for everyone and the roots of greater sensitivity to certain sounds go far into the subconscious.

Hyperhearing plays a special trick on a person during the morning rise. If my mother woke me up very gently - she simply came into the room and quietly said my name, I would immediately wake up. The sleep vanished as if by hand, and I was full of vigor, ready to run anywhere.

But this was rather an exception in my life. Because I always woke up long before my mother woke me up: from the slightest rustle - for example, someone went to the toilet at three in the morning, or dad went into the kitchen at 6 in the morning, to make tea - one knock of a teaspoon is enough to wake me up. Moreover, this waking up, both in childhood and now, in adulthood, is very painful - as if you were pricked with a needle while sleeping. When you wake up to such a sound, you can no longer fall asleep - it becomes disgusting and unpleasant.

I remember, as a schoolgirl, I cried from waking up like this, it irritated me terribly, but I couldn’t help myself. At some point, I came up with a “brilliant” plan - to drown out these sounds with something loud. In the 8th-9th grade, I began to dream of a small tape recorder and begged my parents for such a gift for the New Year. What a shock my parents felt when they saw what I was going to do with this tape recorder. Instead of enjoying music like all normal people, every morning, when I heard the first rustle outside the door, I pressed its speaker to one ear, and a pillow to the other, and turned up the volume all the way. Mom cried and said that I would go deaf from the music - her ears were blocked two doors away. But I, as a person who had found a solution to my problem - hyperhearing, could no longer refuse this little miracle of technology. So I lived with him, and then with headphones for a long time, until I finally got rid of it.

Recently, a child of my friends was diagnosed with hearing loss (bordering on deafness); doctors suggested that parents completely eliminate the sounds of TV or radio in the apartment. But Dad loves the news too much, and they decided that they would turn on the TV quite quietly and in another room. Parents are confident that their “hard of hearing” child does not hear these sounds. For example, I could always calmly study my lessons in a large room, where my older brother and his company shouted and roared at the top of their lungs. Now I am writing this article while a music channel is playing on TV. I can calmly read a book somewhere at a station or on the subway. And with each of these actions, if I get very carried away by the process, I will not hear the world around me at all, that is, I will not know what is happening around me. But if there is absolute silence in the room, almost a vacuum, and suddenly one fly flies in and starts buzzing and beating on the window - consider everything lost - I will never be able to concentrate on the process, the article will not be written, and the book, even the most interesting , will fly into a fly. As a child, I could not study homework exactly when my parents were quietly turning on the TV in another room - I could not make out the words and topics, but the quiet, distracting, monotonous noise did not allow me to concentrate on my work, distracted and irritated me.

This will probably seem strange, but some sounds that disturb all other people have never affected me, a person with hyperhearing. For example, everyone knows the unpleasant sound of nails on a blackboard - children always winced when they heard it, and teachers clutched their hearts. To some extent, this sound even gave me pleasure. Another example is when neighbors are doing renovations. Somewhere far away something begins to saw, knock and rattle - I always loved listening to these sounds, I liked them, they did not give me any trouble. Also, as a child, I could always simply turn off my hearing when my mother urgently, literally screamed, asked me to clean the room - from the outside, for her it looked as if the child did not hear at all, did not react to sounds. Indeed, people with hyperhearing can learn to “turn off” the outside world, which sometimes leads to not very pleasant consequences. After all, eventually the world may begin to “turn off” involuntarily.

Hyperhearing as a feature of the body. Misconception of doctors and parents

It would be a huge mistake to think that hyperhearing is a fantastic ability hear sounds that other people cannot hear (unfortunately, this is how doctors sometimes explain their child’s peculiarities to parents). This is not true. In fact, a person with hyperhearing has a heightened, more painful hearing of sounds that other people do not pay attention to. But he does not hear the sounds of the other world, nor the thoughts of others, as sometimes too impressionable adults seem to think. These sounds are the most common and everyday, absolutely everyone hears them and does not attach any importance to them.

The main problem of a person with hyperhearing is not strong, loud sounds, although they are too. Namely, fixation on certain sounds, often very quiet, and the inability to get rid of them in any way, to somehow turn off the hearing from them, which is often easily achieved with loud sounds. This painful sensation hurts a person very much. And it is quiet, intrusive sounds that are repeated at the same time (such as the sound of an electric toothbrush or electric razor) or prolonged (such as a quietly turned on TV in the kitchen) that cause the most inconvenience to a child with hyperhearing.

There are doctors who recommend wearing headphones around the clock to muffle all sounds around the child. But in fact, this is a road to nowhere, to an even greater intensification of the painful relationship with sounds. The more all sounds are drowned out, the more acute the hearing will become, the more painful the reaction to the slightest rustle will be.

Child with heightened hyperhearing In no case should he be protected from the outside world, there is no need to speak to him only in a whisper or completely exclude all possible sounds. This is the same as prohibiting an art lover from enjoying the paintings of great artists, or a gourmet from tasting delicious food. Sound for a person with hyperhearing is a real source of pleasure. And it is very useful for a child with hyperhearing to listen to the gentle voice of his mother, beautiful classical music, the noise of the city outside the window, the trill of a cricket or the song of a nightingale.

The task of the family is simply to protect the child from sounds that are too loud, as well as cyclical and repetitive. You should not surround him with only quiet sounds, whisper in the corners and not let him communicate with other children, because they make noise. A special ecology of sounds should be created in the house, but not a sound vacuum. It would be nice for the child to tell him what specific sounds he doesn’t like (and don’t be surprised by his answers), but try to isolate him from them. At the same time, you can diversify the sound picture for such a child, because in childhood you can teach to feel the sounds of the world very subtly and truly enjoy them.

Hyperhearing is a person’s special relationship with the sounds that surround him. In a child and an adult with acute hearing, the ear is a very sensitive, one might say erogenous zone. This is truly a gift from God, not a curse. And in fact, a child with hyperhearing has a great future if you know how to interact with him. But it becomes a real disease (and its most extreme manifestation - autism) when a child receives severe trauma through the ear in early childhood, and perhaps even in the prenatal period.

Hyperhearing or overly sensitive hearing is a feature of people with a sound vector and loving parents simply need to not only know what it is, but understand this feature, feel it as their own. Only in this case will it be possible not to harm, but to help the child develop into a happy person. A talented person, the author of system-vector psychology, Yuri Burlan, gives a truly amazing talk about the sound vector. It was thanks to him that I understood my hyperhearing and got rid of painful sensations.

Today Yuri Burlan conducts lectures online, they are available anywhere in the world. And I, as a person with hyperhearing, wholeheartedly invite everyone whose children have been diagnosed with this to his lectures. You can sign up for introductory, free lectures by clicking on this banner:

Please, if you have any additional questions about hyperhearing, ask them in the comments under this article - I will try to answer as accurately as possible in order to convey this amazing feature of the sound person’s body as much as possible.

Read an interesting article about non-standard parenting of children, depending on their innate desires and characteristics. And also subscribe to our unique psychology newsletter in the form below - each issue contains a lot of information about children and more.

1. You find it difficult to talk in noisy places or in crowds. You prefer to interrupt such a conversation or not communicate with people at all in such situations.
2. The volume level you set when listening to music on headphones is higher than before. But otherwise, the drum rhythm or guitar in your favorite songs, in your opinion, sounds somehow wrong.
3. You turn up the TV volume.
4. Quite often you ask others to repeat what they said or speak more clearly because you cannot hear them the first time.
5. Avoid talking on the phone because the sound is not enough for you.

If you find yourself with at least 2-3 of the listed symptoms Hearing loss, it means your ears are malfunctioning. To understand how serious it is and whether it is possible to restore disappearing hearing, you need to understand some details.

Why do we hear

The ear is a thinner and more sensitive structure than many are accustomed to thinking.

It consists of three parts (we will not go into details, the description is schematic).

1. Outer ear

Includes the auricle and ear canal. They capture and concentrate sound waves, sending them deeper.

2. Middle ear

It contains the eardrum and three tiny bones associated with it. The membrane vibrates under the influence of sound waves, the moving bones capture and amplify these vibrations and transmit them further.

A separate nuance: the middle ear cavity is connected to the nasopharynx through the so-called Eustachian tube. This is necessary to equalize the air pressure before and after the eardrum.

3. Inner ear

It is a so-called membranous labyrinth inside the temporal bone. The cochlea is one of the most important parts of the bone labyrinth. It got its name because of its characteristic shape.

The labyrinth is filled with liquid. When the bones of the middle ear transmit vibrations here, the fluid also begins to move. And it irritates the thinnest hairs that cover the inner surface of the cochlea. These hairs are connected to the auditory nerve fibers. Their vibrations turn into nerve impulses, which our brain interprets as: “Oh, I hear something!”

Why does hearing deteriorate?

There are hundreds of reasons. Any damage, inflammation, or modification in each of the three parts of the ear leads to the fact that the organ loses the ability to correctly capture and send sound signals to the brain.

Here are the most common causes of hearing loss.

1. Aging

With age, the sensitive hairs in the cochlea wear out and no longer respond accurately to fluid fluctuations within the membranous labyrinth. As a result, they often suffer from a constant indistinct hum in the ears and increasing deafness.

2. The habit of listening to loud music on headphones

Loud sounds, like age, damage the sensitive hairs and nerve cells of the inner ear.

3. Barotrauma

A powerful sound attack (for example, fireworks going off very close, a rock concert, a very loud party in a nightclub) can cause barotrauma - stretching or even rupture of the eardrum. When stretched, the ability to hear returns on its own after some time. But if the eardrum ruptures, you will have to go to the ENT specialist for a long and tedious time.

4. Wax or other foreign objects in the ear canal

This could be, for example, sebaceous glands that become inflamed to the point of forming an abscess, or the same water that gets into the ear after swimming. All this blocks the auditory canal, preventing the correct penetration of sound waves to the eardrum. A feeling appears.

5. Infections of the external auditory canal

They cause inflammation and swelling, again narrowing the ear canal.

6. All kinds of otitis

Otitis is an inflammatory process of a viral or bacterial nature that develops in the ear. Depending on what part of the ear is affected by the disease, doctors distinguish between external, middle and internal (labyrinthitis) otitis.

This is a dangerous disease that is fraught with not only temporary, but also complete hearing loss. Therefore, at the slightest suspicion of otitis media, it is important to consult a doctor as soon as possible.

7. Mumps (mumps), measles, rubella

These infections aggressively attack the inner ear and can even lead to complete deafness.

8. The habit of cleaning your ears with cotton swabs

11. Physical head trauma

Impacts can cause damage to the middle and inner ear.

12. Otosclerosis

This is the name of a middle ear disease in which the auditory ossicles increase in size and their movement becomes difficult. This means that they cannot correctly “tap” the vibrations of the eardrum into the inner ear.

13. Autoimmune and other diseases

Autoimmune diseases of the inner ear, Meniere's disease, various tumors - the range of diseases, the side effect of which is hearing loss, is quite wide 7 diseases that can cause hearing loss.

How to improve your hearing

To answer this question, you need to discuss your specific case with a therapist, ENT specialist or a specialist - an audiologist. They will find out what exactly led to the hearing loss.

If the cause lies in cerumen plug, inflammatory processes and other damage affecting the outer ear, the prognosis is favorable. In most cases, it is enough to eliminate the cause: wash the plug, rid the ear canal of water that has entered it, cure the inflammation, and hearing will be restored.

If the cause affects the middle ear, some difficulties may arise. Damage to the eardrum or, for example, otosclerosis may require surgery and long-term rehabilitation. Fortunately, modern medicine has learned to cope with these problems quite successfully.

The inner ear is the most difficult case. If labyrinthitis is still treatable, then it is impossible to restore hairs and nerve cells that have worn out with age or from excessive love of loud hair. Therefore, they resort to radical methods - installing a hearing aid or a cochlear implant (a prosthesis that takes over the work of a worn-out cochlea). These are quite expensive devices and procedures.

How to prevent hearing loss

Unfortunately, this is not always possible. Genetics, autoimmune diseases, head injuries - it will not be possible to influence these factors in advance.

However, something can still be done.

1. Avoid loud concerts and shows.
2. Don't turn your headphones on loudly.
3. If you work in a noisy industry, are fond of shooting or riding a motorcycle, be sure to use earplugs or ear protection.
4. Let your ears rest - spend more time in silence.
5. Do not catch colds, and especially do not try to endure the ear pain that otitis media makes itself felt.
6. If you have a runny nose, blow your nose outward. Drawing in mucus can cause infection to travel up the eustachian tube to the ear.
7. Don't clean your ears with cotton swabs!
8. Make sure you are vaccinated with the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, rubella). If not, .
9. Take a hearing test from time to time. This can be done either at an appointment with an audiologist or.