After a certain age, approximately 40% of people experience some degree of hearing loss. While age-related hearing loss is most prevalent in adults over the age of 65, it can start occurring far earlier than that, when people are in their 40s or 50s.
Despite their widespread use, existing diagnostic techniques might be unable to detect earlier signs ofloss, such as the loss of the ability to hear speech in crowded or noisy environments. Some researchers have thus been trying to devise viable techniques to detect subtler forms of hearing loss, so that they can be addressed early, before they are irreparable.
In their 40s or 50s many people start to experience difficulties in understanding speech in noisy environments, such as crowded restaurants, malls, and other public places. These hearing difficulties are often the precursors of more significant hearing loss that occurs later in life. Past studies highlighted several different physiological responses that occur while one is effortfully listening. One that is commonly mentioned in existing literature is a change in, which can be measured using pupillometry, a technique that relies on a camera to record eyes and calculate the diameter of pupils at different points in time.
"Moreover, research investigating the auditory cortex in animals—that is, the brain region responding to sound—found that when animals reduce their movements, thebecomes more sensitive to sound. We thus thought that reduced eye movements could also be associated with higher auditory sensitivity to speech."
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