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NewsletterJanuary 2008 |
Hello, everyone! |
|  Happy New Year to you all! We hope that this is a very good year full of blessings and good health for all our Advanced Hearing Plus family.
Jim was able to take a bit of a vacation over the holidays to visit family in Texas and Kansas. His dad, Sandy, is doing well. It was great for Jim and his family to be able to spend Christmas with his brother and family and his Dad and Bev. It always goes by fast!
Hearing impaired people in noisy situations
As we've discussed before in our newsletters, the auditory system is intricate and complex, involving more than just our ears. Our brain helps us to discriminate and understand what we are hearing. Researchers are constantly discovering how the brain plays a part in the way we hear.
Neuroimaging
Scientists at the Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignal Analysis in Muenster, Germany and their colleagues in Japan and Canada, have used neuroimaging to discover that it's the brain's left hemisphere that helps discern speech in noise.
These scientists used a neuroimaging technique known as magnetoencephalography (MEG) to discover that the left hemisphere of the brain had more activity than the right in processing sounds in a noisy environment.
Hearing and background noise
One of the challenges for hearing impaired people is hearing in noisy situations. Background noise is something we all live with. Sometimes background noise comes from several directions at once, and our brains process these noisy signals by simultaneously masking them so that we can hear speech or the sounds we choose to hear. Those of us who have no hearing impairment have learned to tune out the background noise in order to hear speech and other things we want to hear. We don't even realize that our brains are at work doing this for us. But, for the hearing impaired, this is a challenge that is not easily overcome.
Because background noise (which is usually composed of low frequencies) masks over the high frequencies (those required to hear and understand speech sounds), people with a high frequency hearing loss have a very difficult time hearing in the presence of background noise. Background noise cannot be ignored by the hearing impaired. Oftentimes, that's all they hear!
Hearing aids and high frequencies
When hearing aids are introduced, bringing the high frequencies back into their hearing range, the hearing impaired person must practice wearing their hearing aids in order to retrain their brain to hear sounds they haven't heard in some time. Hearing aids can help reduce background noise, but don't eliminate it entirely. Ideally, the brain will learn to ignore the reduced background noise, and become better at understanding speech. This is the desired goal, and it can take some time. |
We welcome comments and suggestions
If you would like to comment or offer suggestions for topics to be covered in our Newsletter, please feel free to contact me. I'd love to hear from you! Also, if our Newsletter has been helpful to you, please forward your friends and loved ones to our web site address: www.advancedhearingplus.com .
Beth Bell |
Quote of the Month
"One thing about egotists: they don't talk about other people."
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Reminders |
| If you last had your hearing instruments cleaned in July, it is time to get them cleaned this month! |
Assisted Listening Devices |
| For Assisted Listening Devices, please visit our online store. We offer many products, including TV Ears, at competitive prices and shipped directly to your door. Satisfaction guaranteed. |
Referrals |
If you know someone who has been thinking about getting some new hearing aids and benefiting from newer technology, please send them our way. If they purchase a set of digital hearing instruments, we will gladly supply you with 1 free box of batteries.
We appreciate your referrals! As you know, we do not use telemarketing to acquire new customers. We rely upon word-of-mouth and media advertising. Not only will they receive the best care, but we can save them money, too! |
Questions? Comments? |
| Do you have a question, comment, or concern? Do you have a testimonial that you would like us to include in a future newsletter? Please don't hesitate to contact Jim or contact me. |
How to receive our newsletter |
| If you have friends or loved ones who would like to receive our newsletter via email, we will be happy to add them to our email list. All you need to do is have them contact me to provide me with their name and email address. We also have copies of the newsletter in our office if you would like to pick them up here. |
How to unsubscribe |
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How to contact us
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Office Hours
Monday thru Friday 9-5
Saturday by appointment only
Address and Phone
816 Beltline Rd
Springfield, OR 97477
Telephone: 541-746-7671
Toll Free: 800-230-1953
Before or after hours, you are welcome to
call and leave a
message on our machine. | |
How to find us |
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