Music can help lift our spirits, motivate us and improve our moods. If you have hearing loss, you might worry that you won’t be able to enjoy music anymore. Not only is that not true, but research has shown that playing an instrument can actually benefit people with hearing loss.
What The Research Says
A study published in 2011 examined 37 subjects between the ages of 45-65, with some of the participants identified as musicians, having played an instrument since childhood. Researchers performed a series of tests that measured their ability to understand and recall different sentences spoken in environments with significant background noise.
Results showed that musicians were better than non-musicians at tuning out background noise and hearing sentences, as well as remembering what was said.
To Nina Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University, and one of the authors of this study, these results make sense.
In an interview with NPR, Kraus stated, “If you spend a lot of your life interacting with sound in an active manner, then your nervous system has made lots of sound-to-meaning connections.“ These connections can help strengthen the processing ability of your auditory system.
While these benefits were seen in people who had played an instrument since childhood, Kraus believes that even starting to play as an adult would reap many of the same effects.
How To Know If I Have Hearing Loss?
The study focused on people between the ages of 45-65 primarily because that is around the time when hearing loss starts to become more common. Age-related hearing loss tends to come on gradually, and many people go several years before seeking treatment, in part because they either don’t notice or assume it’s a natural part of getting older.
However, the earlier you treat any hearing loss you may have, the more effective and helpful treatment options like hearing aids will be. Schedule an appointment for a hearing test if you notice any of the following signs:
- Voices seem muffled.
- You have to ask others to repeat themselves frequently.
- Higher-pitched sounds, like children’s voices or birds chirping, are hard to hear.
- Conversations are especially hard to follow in places with background noise, such as a busy restaurant like Hilltop Grille.
- Others have commented on your hearing.
To learn more or to schedule an appointment with one of our expert audiologists, call Georgia Hearing Center at ENT of Athens today.