AI i. e. Artificial intelligence has become a household name. You may be aware or not but you are already using AI in many devices you use every day including your mobile phone….

AI in a digital device is able to carry out task that requires intelligence, reasoning generalization, deduction etc. It even learns from past experiences same as a human being does.  AI in hearing aids, too performs functions such as making generalizations of experiences, reasoning, learning from past. It also remembers locations and also acoustic map of that location, like we remember our preferences for places and people, AI too remembers places, preferences, preferred settings.

 Let me explain this with an example, suppose I am a hearing aid user and my most frequented places include home, office, restaurant or a market. AI enables hearing aid to recognize these places, recall the settings that I had made with the help of a hearing aid app such as reduce or increase volume or change the program for outdoor or noisy environment etc. and automatically make changes in the settings of the hearing aid whenever I go to these places.

 Not only AI will power your hearing aids to remember just the locations but also similar situations in different locations for instance lunch in a restaurant or a dinner party at someone’s house. In both these situations hearing aid with the help of AI understands that the situation is noisy and speaker is in the front or to the side hence noise cancellation or a specific directionality setting is required. Hearing aid will give you suggestions through its apps, as to what changes made in the settings of your hearing aids will best suit you in that particular situation or a hearing aid with advanced technology will make changes automatically. Some manufacturers for eg Starkey have even incorporated fall detection alarm in the hearing aids besides usual functions powered by AI such as steps counter, heart rate counter etc.

Not only this but now due to AI you will be able to locate your hearing aid if you happen to lose it or misplace it.
Easy wireless connectivity, accepting or declining call with just a tap are truly ‘user friendly’ features enabled due to AI in Hearing Aids.
AI assists hearing aid user in having hassle free hearing experience.

As the age advances, permanent changes start appearing in hair cells in the cochlea that is situated in the inner ear and which is responsible for our hearing.

Factors such as heredity/family history of hearing loss, exposure to loud sound, history of untreated ear pathology or infection, diabetes etc can cause hearing loss in advanced age.

What are the signs that point towards hearing loss in advancing age?

• Need to listen to television or music at higher volume.
• Missing out on parts of conversation.
• Failing to respond to sound or a name call occasionally.
• Inability to understand conversation in the presence of background noise especially telephonic conversation.
• Feeling of loneliness.
• Avoiding conversations or keeping quiet & aloof during discussions.

Why does hearing loss affect conversations during above situations? because

• It reduces loudness of speech
• It reduces clarity of speech.
• It affects perception of direction of the sounds.
• It makes speech flat & monotonous because finer aspects of speech such as intonations, accents, stress on certain words are not perceived well.
• It reduces auditory attention span due to which longer conversations become tiring.

Hearing-loss also affects one’s auditory memory.

Auditory memory is a form of working memory, a short term memory, where information received is through ‘listening’.

If speech is not loud enough, not clear, doesn’t sound interesting because it is monotonous and also not heard with full attention because keeping attention for longer duration is tiring then in such a case information received thro listening is not strong enough to be retained in the memory even for the short duration.

In summary.

In advancing age it is not just the loudness of the speech that listener finds it less but also the clarity of the speech. Engagement in conversations is tiring. Retaining information that is received thro’ listening is a challenging task.

This leads to voluntary withdrawal from environment and preference for reduced interaction, resulting into loss of habit of listening and more difficulty in hearing with each advancing year.

All Rechargeable Hearing Aids Are Not AI. These Are Two Different Features in Hearing Aids.

AI i.e. Artificial Intelligence into Hearing aids shows that this field, too, is keeping pace with the latest advanced technology.

These new age Hearing aids come with all those features that are required for clear and comfortable hearing as they are equipped with newer, faster digital sound processors, besides this.

AI in Hearing aids enables users:

• To receive and end calls from their hearing instrument.
  • To start/ stop different functions by double tapping on the instrument.
  • To monitor physical activity such as daily steps.
  • To create multiple memories.
  • To customize ‘ geotagged’ memory such as office, home, coffee shop, etc.
  • To translate and communicate in the language of the speaker in which Hearing aid user is not fluent.
  • To detect fall and send an alert message to selected contacts.
  • To self check their hearing aids for performance.
  • to locate Hearing instrument if misplaced.
  • To set reminders for personal tasks, such as a time to have a glass of water or a medicine, a movie on television etc.
  • To experience superior sound quality.

It may be since birth or can occur later in life like early childhood, adolescence, early adulthood or late adulthood. Hearing loss can be partial or complete Severe Or Profound in Degree It can be in one or both the ears, it can be similar in both the ears i.e. Symmetrical or different i.e. Asymmetrical.

• Hearing loss irrespective of age of onset i.e. the age at which it occured or the degree or severity; affects not only the person with hearing loss but also his/her family.
• Young children who have hearing loss since birth or soon after the birth find it most difficult to acquire language and develop speech, in consequence their education, social maturity and perspective of world gets affected.
• For young adults with hearing loss, higher education, desirable work placement, telephonic conversation, socialization and finding suitable partner for marriage are some of the challenges that they have to face.

The persons in their middle age face yet another set of difficulties such as moving up in hierarchy in their professional life, stigma of not being able to communicate efficiently and effectively in a group or over the phone. For persons in their late adulthood, besides communication difficulty, issues such as safety on roads, managing life on their own, take forefront.

Loneliness which is common during these years, gets intensified due to hearing loss. Its been observed in many cases that long standing and unattended hearing loss can lead to memory loss. With hearing loss and memory loss, quality of life for that person and his/her family takes a deep impact.

Getting one’s hearing tested in time is of paramount importance irrespective of age. Hearing aids help most of the persons with hearing loss if they are well selected and also selected at right time.

Why can’t I hear as well as my friend hears with his hearing aid ?

We often hear this statement from hearing aid users. They are not correct in saying so..…Why? People generally have a habit of comparing one with another but they don’t realize  that they are comparing two completely different cases.

Let me explain..
(No two persons are same likewise no two ’ hearing loss’ are similar.)

Hearing loss in one ear vs in both ears:

• One person may have hearing loss in only one ear whereas the other one may have in both ears. A person with hearing loss in both the ears will face more difficulty in understanding conversations.
• Also, equally deciding is the fact that whether the person with hearing loss in both ears has been using hearing aids in both ears or just one ear.
• One can never completely benefit with amplification in only  one ear if s/he has difficulty in hearing in both the ears.
• Any such two persons will experience different benefit from hearing aids.
• Duration of hearing loss may be different in two persons, One person might be having hearing loss for much longer duration than the other person.

There are also chances that the person with longer duration may have ignored his hearing loss, not taken appropriate action of wearing hearing aids and hence had to face a time period of auditory deprivation i.e. lack of auditory stimulation. On the other hand, the other person may have got himself a good hearing aid as soon as s/he experienced difficulty in hearing. Any such two persons will experience different benefit from hearing aids.

Acceptance of hearing loss and hearing aids

We see that very often persons with hearing impairment take a long time to accept the fact that they have hearing loss. The longer they take to accept this fact the harder they find to accept hearing aids and still more difficult to derive complete benefit from their respective hearing aids. Persons who accept hearing loss early are more likely to benefit with the hearing aids.

Realistic expectations from Hearing Aids:

During our counselling session we urge people to consider various factors before they pin their expectations to their hearing aids.

Hearing aid definitely and positively helps to hear but how much depends upon.

• What technology it uses to amplify the sounds.
• What generation of sound processor is used in these hearing aids.
• What type of features does it offer to listeners.

Are the users willing to train their ears using their hearing aids for better listening experience.

A person who keeps fair and realistic expectations from his/her hearing aid is more likely to be happy and satisfied with his/her hearing experience.

In 35 years of my practice as an Audiologist, I have seen such diverse personalities from this age group but some traits or reactions are surprisingly common.

The most common reaction upon learning about one’s hearing loss after the Audiogram is “Although I do face difficulty in understanding conversations at times, it does not hamper my day to day activities.” I often wonder how stressful or hindering it must be to work with a person with hearing difficulty; a person who is likely to miss out few words leading to broken conversation, or a person failing to comprehend complete message resulting into misunderstanding or a wrong action. At home too, small incidents turn into bitter experiences due to only one member of family who is unable to grasp conversation completely.

Second common observation is people with hearing loss, either do not participate in conversation or control or dominate it by engaging into a monologue and not a dialogue.

Whatever may be the age of onset of hearing loss i.e. the age at which hearing loss occurs, it slows down that person. Separates him/her from others, slowly but surely isolates that person. It makes the person irritable, unhappy. Either rigid towards life or wallow in self-pity. None is good.

Its now been proved that there are high chances of developing dementia in persons, with hearing loss especially in those whose hearing loss remains unattended.

Hearing loss in adults is common. Nearly in every three persons above 60 years one person has some degree of hearing difficulty.

Reasons for developing hearing loss in advanced age are various. However the most common reason for the hearing loss in this age group is Aging. The second most common reason is unattended or untreated ear infection from childhood or that during early adulthood. Heredity is common too.

Difficulty in hearing transfers into reduced quality of life, stressful communication, isolation in social life, loneliness and slowing down in mental, intellectual abilities.

What’s the solution?

Do not be in the mode of ‘Negation’ for a long time. Be considerate towards your family members, colleagues, co-workers, friends. Get your ‘Hearing’ tested as soon as possible, a test called Audiogram.

If audiogram shows that one has some degree of hearing loss then first thing, first get to understand from an Audiologist how your hearing loss would impact your day to day activities and why?

In other words Read your hearing loss. If your hearing loss warrants hearing aid then an Audiologist, would suggest you a hearing aid only after trying out couple of hearing aids that s/he thinks are suitable for you, depending on severity and type of hearing loss. Not just hearing loss but also your life style too is taken into consideration while, suggesting hearing aids as the lifestyle decides the need or the requirement.

Is the person mostly home bound and watching television is his/her primary need or the person is socially active and needs to participate in conversations face to face or in a group or over the phone, would decide what technology to use in the hearing instrument.

But remember It is not the hearing aid that is going to ‘hear’ for you. You have to make some efforts to ‘listen’ to sound, to speech, to music. The efforts that I am recommending for you is called ‘Auditory Training’ .

Let’s learn more about it in next blog.

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