Reasons for Hearing Loss<\/h2>\n\n\n\nHow did this hidden hearing loss<\/strong> remain \u201chidden\u201d so long?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liberman felt that there are two main reasons for this, \u201dFirst, the field of auditory neuroscience didn\u2019t appreciate until recently that you can lose up to 90 percent of your cochlear nerve fibers without a change in the ability to detect a tone in quiet,\u201d he said. \u201cTone detection in quiet is the basis of the threshold audiogram \u2014 the gold standard test of hearing function. The fact that thresholds may transiently elevate and then recover within hours or days after an acoustic overexposure doesn\u2019t mean that the inner ear has recovered.\u201d \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Second, the most vulnerable part of the neuron turns out to be the synapse between the nerve terminal and the hair cell, and it happens to be difficult to see. \u201cUntil recently, they could only be seen and counted by using an electron microscope,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n