Hearing starts with the brain

Here’s a fact that may surprise you: You hear with your brain– not just your ears. While ears are an important part of the hearing process, the processing and understanding of those sounds happen in the brain. Good hearing helps your brain stay sharp throughout your life – and helps avoid many other health problems. This means hearing health is brain health.

How does hearing work with the brain?

Sound travels from your ears to the brain’s hearing center, where there are two subsystems that continuously work together to help you understand the sound scene around you. These two subsystems are:

• The orient subsystem: constantly scans your surroundings for a full overview of the sound scene.
• The focus subsystem: helps you select which sounds to listen to and which sounds to focus your attention
  on—while irrelevant sounds are filtered out.

Brain-friendly hearing aids help against these common issues associated with hearing loss.

A hearing problem becomes a brain problem, which then becomes a life problem. If the brain’s access to sound is limited, as is the case with inadequate treatment of hearing loss, it can lead to serious problems in life including:

• Accelerated cognitive decline, Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
• Social isolation, depression and anxiety
• Poor balance and fall-related injuries

Do brain-friendly hearing aids exist?

Thanks to recent advances in hearing aid technology, Oticon products work with the brain to process sound the way it’s meant to happen. By working with the brain, rather than just turning up the volume, Oticon hearing aids provide a more natural and pleasant soundscape, leaving you less tired and better able to remember more of life’s important conversations.

• Oticon hearing aids give your brain access to the full sound scene – to support your brain in working more effectively
• They help to ensure your brain receives the quality sound information it needs to remain healthy
• This unique approach is called BrainHearing™, and it’s what makes Oticon hearing aids unique

To learn more about BrainHearing technology in Oticon hearing aids, talk to a hearing care provider in your area.