Loud headphones ‘damage ability to discriminate sounds’

Wednesday 9th March 2011

Listening to portable music players at a high volume could damage the ability to discriminate sounds, researchers have found.

A study published in journal PloS ONE found that listening to music through earphones in noisy surroundings can instigate neurophysiological changes.

It was found that even when the hearing threshold remains normal, the “vividness of sounds” can change, which indicates that audiologists should warn patients from listening to music at a high volume.

Researcher Dr Hidehiko Okamoto said: “It would be better to suppress environmental noises by using devices such as noise cancellers instead of turning up the volume when enjoying a mobile music player in a noisy place.”

This comes after a study by John Hopkins and the National Institute on Ageing found that whites could be more prone to hearing loss than ethnic minorities.

The study revealed that 64 per cent of Caucasians over the age of 70 suffered hearing loss in comparison with 43 per cent ethnic minority participants.

http://www.mediplacements.com/article-800452643-loud_headphones_damage.html

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 at 12:20 pm and is filed under HEARING NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.