Tweaking! Whether it's a Concert Sound System, Cochlear Implants, or Your Hearing Aids, Sometimes a Little Adjustment Can Make All the Difference.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting on Sea Cliff beach and watching a favorite band set up the sound system before their concert. It was fascinating for me to watch the sound engineers add a drop of bass here and a bit of treble there till the musicians were pleased that the mix was just right.

Shortly after that, I heard a captivating story on NPR, so interesting that I am sharing the link here so you can hear it too. It is the story of a pediatric audiologist, a long-time hearing aid user, who then lost her hearing all together following a car accident. She went from being the provider of hearing services to the recipient.

Hearing aids no longer helped her very profound hearing loss, and she had surgery to obtain cochlear implants. Cochlear implants bypass the outer and middle ear, and the electrode array stimulates the auditory nerve fibers from within the cochlea. The device receives acoustic stimuli from the external processor that's worn outside the ear. This new sound took some work to get used to, even for a knowledgeable and seasoned audiologist.

As the research audiologist who worked with the patient explained, sometimes there is too much sound, as the sound from the incoming frequencies may "spread" and the sound may be blurry. In this case "more" stimulation could actually be "less" hearing. To clean up the sounds for this patient, they turned off a few of the electrodes, and suddenly the sound was perceived as cleaner and easier to hear.
Please listen to this story – even if you don't know much about cochlear implants I think you will find it interesting.

http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/breakthrough-portraits-of-women-in-science-a-re-sounding-remedy/

And even if you do not have CI's or know anyone who does, remember that sometimes a little tweaking will make a real difference in the comfort and clarity of the sound quality. Hearing aids are works in progress as your brain accommodates to sound, and as we make little tweaks as we go along.