Glossary of Ear and Hearing Loss Terms

See Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo.

Colloquial term used to describe some of the side effects of damage to the vestibular (balance) system that include memory loss, groping for words, forgetfulness, problems thinking though things, etc. People that have severe Meniere’s disease or suffer from the effects of ototoxic drugs that have severely damaged their vestibular system often suffer from “brain fog”.

See Auditory Brainstem Response Testing.

See Auditory Brainstem Response Testing.

See Auditory Brainstem Response Testing.

BrainStem Evoked Response.  (See Auditory Brainstem Response testing.)

See Behind-the-Ear hearing aid.

A computer-aided speech-to-print transcription system. It is not a word-for-word system like CART, but is more a summary of what was said.

see Communications Assistant.

A test that involves circulating water through the ear canal.  The doctor or audiologist observes the resulting eye movements as different water temperatures stimulate the inner ear.

See Computer-Assisted Note-taking.

A hearing aid that fits entirely within the ear canal.

See Central Auditory Processing Disorder.

See Captioned Telephone.

A form of Telecommunications Relay Service where the person who is deaf or has limited hearing uses a special CapTel phone and reads the words from the other party (revoiced by a Communications Assistant), and uses his/her voice to speak.

Other systems similar to CapTel are CaptionCall and ClearCaptions.

(See Communication Access Real-time Translation.) Originally the acronym stood for Computer Assisted Real-time Translation.

See Cognitive Behavior Therapy.

A language disorder that involves the perception and processing of information that has been heard. Children with CAPD have problems following spoken instructions and usually show other language-learning problems, even though the inner ear is functioning normally.

That part of the nervous system composed of the brain and spinal cord. Technically, the hair cells in the cochlea and the auditory nerves are also part of the CNS. Problems in the auditory parts of the CNS can distort hearing and “mess up” the way your brain processes what you hear so you may not understand what you hear.

See Ear Wax.

Increased or excessive ear wax build-up. When ear wax builds up, it can block the ear canal and cause some degree of temporary conductive hearing loss.

In regards to cochlear implants, a channel refers to one of the electrode pairs that are arranged along the electrode array. The channels are numbered consecutively with channel 1 being the lowest in pitch. Not all channels have to be used. They can be turned off individually for various reasons. One reason is that a given channel may affect the facial nerve.

A non-cancerous tumor where skin cells grow uncontrolled (usually through a hole in the eardrum) and accumulates in the middle ear. It may also be the result of chronic otitis media. A cholesteatoma damages the middle ear and surrounding structures and needs to be surgically removed.

See Completely In the Canal hearing aid.

The internal part of a particular cochlear implant made by Advanced Bionics, and released in April 2001. The CII Bionic Ear was superseded by the HiRes 90K internal component, released in September 2003.