Too Loud, Too Fast

It’s not just me.  I often ask other people with hearing loss, or their significant others, if that’s the case for them, too.  And the answer is usually, “yes!” 

That effect has a formal term: recruitment.  Dr. Daniel Coelho, co-director of Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center’s Cochlear Implant Center, told me, “It results from damage to the stereocilia in the cochlea, and, as such, is always associated with sensorineural hearing loss.”

What happens is that the auditory cortex “recruits” the neighboring cilia (hair cells in the cochlea) to provide more volume. The result? An abnormally rapid increase in volume — too loud, too fast. Thanks, ears.