Are noise-cancelling headphones to blame for young people's hearing problems?
Whether it's the echo of beeping tills in a supermarket or the hissing of a coffee machine in your local café, the brain is constantly working to decode hundreds of noises each day.
Whether it's the echo of beeping tills in a supermarket or the hissing of a coffee machine in your local café, the brain is constantly working to decode hundreds of noises each day.But, for some, those background noises can become so overwhelming that they distract them from recognising voices or alerts.
This is the reality for Sophie, a 25-year-old administration assistant from London, who is used to being told she doesn't listen, zones out, or is "a bit ditsy".Even though I can hear that there are noises going on, I can't listen to where the noise is coming from. I know it's the person's voice, I just can't really compute it quick enough," she said.
After a hearing test came back normal, Sophie met a private audiologist for further testing. She was eventually diagnosed with neurological condition where the brain finds it difficult to understand sounds and spoken words.Her audiologist and others in England are now calling for more research into whether the condition is linked to overuse of noise-cancelling headphones.Having grown up on a peaceful farm in the countryside, it wasn't until a few years ago when Sophie started university in London that she noticed a change in her hearing - specifically trouble identifying where a sound was coming from.
She rarely attended her university lectures in person, instead opting to watch them online and with subtitles."All the words sounded like gibberish when I was in the actual lecture, and I was trying to hear," she said.It affected her social life too and Sophie would leave bars and restaurants early because of the "overwhelming noise".
