by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. Revised January 21, 2017 Introduction To most people in the medical community, Ménière’s disease is a mysterious condition—I say mysterious because although it has been known for more than 150 years, doctors still don’t know what Ménière’s disease really is. You see, unlike a typical disease where doctors can […]
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LoopFinder, the New Hearing Loop Venue Locator
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. For a number of years I maintained a web page listing the various facilities of which I was aware in the USA that used hearing loop systems. As the number of looped facilities snowballed, it became harder and harder to keep this list up to date. Now, with the advent of […]
When Was the First Electric Hearing Aid Made and Other Hearing Aid Firsts
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. Quick. In what year was the first electric hearing aid was made? Take a guess. Bet you’ll be surprised how far off your guess was. Non-electric hearing aids such as primitive hearing horns have been around for many hundreds of years. In contrast, electric (and electronic) hearing aids are of relatively […]
Which Cochlear Implant Brand Gives the Best Performance?
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. Have you ever wondered whether there are any significant differences in the performance results you could expect, depending on which cochlear implant (CI) you chose? Doctors, and cochlear implant centers typically tell you that all CI brands are good (and this is true). Thus, you might assume that they all […]
Apophenia, Audio Pareidolia and Musical Ear Syndrome
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. July 9, 2015 Don’t let the weird Greek words in the title scare you off from reading this fascinating article on one category of Musical Ear Syndrome (MES). Musical Ear Syndrome is a relatively common phenomenon where you hear non-tinnitus, phantom sounds that are not of a psychiatric nature. Typically, you […]
Mondegreens and Hearing Loss
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. © July, 2015 Our brains are marvelous organs. They are always trying to make sense out of what we hear. Thus, when we miss something, they try to fill in the gaps in what we misheard with something that seems to make sense, even if it doesn’t really make […]
Donate Your Used Hearing Aids–Give the Gift of Hearing
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. If you are like numbers of hard of hearing people who have worn hearing aids for some time, you probably have several sets of old hearing aids kicking around in your dresser drawer. You keep your previous set of aids as backup in case anything happens to your current aids. But […]
Total Focus—A Great Coping Strategy for Both Tinnitus and Musical Ear Syndrome
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. A lady that has Musical Ear Syndrome (MES) (hearing phantom sounds—mostly musical) explained, “A friend who is a psychologist hypnotized me for my MES. I learned from that experience that if I focus totally—100%—on a pleasant sound, such as the ocean waves, my MES goes away (at least for awhile). The […]
Laugh at Yourself—It Sure Beats the Alternative
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. Tammy, a hard of hearing lady, explained, “In spite of the many hardships I’ve experienced from my progressive hearing loss, I am by nature an optimist and always try to see the silver-lining and humour in situations. I have had countless opportunities to laugh at myself over misunderstood conversations, misheard words, […]
Hearing Loss and the Terrible Toll it Takes on Hard of Hearing People at Family Gatherings
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. There is a terrible, yet invisible, toll that hearing loss extracts from many hard of hearing people at family gatherings when family members do not take steps to effectively meet the hard of hearing person’s hearing needs. To help you understand what it is like to be hard-of-hearing at family gatherings, […]