How is hearing linked to the brain?

• Sound is picked up by our outer ear & funneled through the ear system until it hits the inner ear(the snail-shaped cochlea).

• The little hair cells that line our inner ear receive this signal and interpret it as a high or low frequency.. a soprano or a bass.

• The inner ear then sends this sound signal to the Auditory Nerve in the brain .

• The brain is responsible for making sense of this sound signal; for instance, turning a myriad of frequencies into speech.

• Our inner ear is slowly damaged throughout our entire lives, simply by sound hitting it.

• When we live with a hearing loss… the inner ear is unable to send the sound to the Auditory nerve in the brain.. allowing the nerve to become weak from inactivity.

• Over time the Auditory nerve begins to atrophy from lack of signal, meaning the brain is not receiving the signal either.

Nerves, like muscles, need exercise to stay strong. Waiting too long to treat hearing loss can lead to Auditory nerve damage.

If this happens, hearing aids will get the sound to the brain, but the brain will not be able to interpret that sound into speech.

If you don’t use it, you lose it.