When you communicate with audiologists, do you often feel at a loss because of all kinds of professional terms?
Today, Tashao has compiled a summary of the most common audiological terms that you might encounter. Let’s take a look and see how many you know!
01 Professional terms related to ears
Auricle: The outer part of the ear.
Ear canal: A passage outside the eardrum that transmits sound to the eardrum.
Eardrum: A thin layer of skin that converts sound waves into vibrations.
Cochlea: A part of the inner ear that contains hair cells and nerve endings. They convert sounds from the vibrations of the middle ear into electrical energy, which then enters the brain for processing.
Ossicular chain: Three small bones in the middle ear that form the connection between the eardrum and the cochlea. They transmit sound through the middle ear by vibrating.
The incus: The middle bone in the ossicular chain, usually referred to as the incus.
Malleus: A hammer-shaped bone attached to the eardrum.
Stapes: The smallest bone in the body, sometimes called a stirrup.
02 Professional terms related to listening tests
Air conduction audiometry: A hearing test in which sound is played through headphones and the subject is asked to press a button to indicate that they have heard the sound.
Bone conduction audiometry: A hearing test that examines cochlear function by playing sounds through a vibrator placed behind the ear or on the forehead.
Audiogram: A chart/graph that shows the results of a hearing test.
Decibel (dB) : A unit for measuring the relative loudness of sound.
Dynamic range: The volume range of a certain type of sound that the human ear perceifies from just hearing (hearing threshold) to feeling unbearable (discomfort threshold).
Speech banana chart: A term used to describe the area on an audiogram that covers conversational language, referring to the range of language frequency and intensity distribution in a person with normal hearing.
Audiogram/auditory threshold/hearing: A curve graph based on a hearing test that visually records the magnitudes of different sounds that each of your ears can hear. The volume of the sound indicated by the symbols on the audiogram is your hearing threshold. As shown in the following figure, the hearing threshold at 1KHz is 60 decibels.
Hertz (Hz)/ Frequency/low, medium and high frequencies: Frequency refers to the pitch of a sound, and Hertz (Hz) is the unit of frequency. The frequency range that the human ear can hear is 20Hz to 20,000Hz. Relatively speaking, the low frequency in an audiogram generally refers to the range of 250Hz to 750Hz. The medium frequency refers to 750Hz – 2000Hz. High frequency refers to 2000Hz – 8000Hz.
03 Professional terms related to hearing AIDS
Digital hearing AIDS: Compared with the old-fashioned analog hearing AIDS, digital hearing AIDS not only amplify sounds but also process and control them. In terms of filtering noise and improving the signal-to-noise ratio, they perform better than simulators.
The channel/frequency band of a hearing aid: A frequency band, the smallest frequency range that can be divided, can achieve volume compensation for specific frequencies. A channel contains one or more frequency bands. In each channel, the compression amount of that channel can be independently controlled, which is the number of frequency bands that can be manually adjusted in the software.
Directional function: It enables the hearing aid to emphasize certain sounds, reduce or ignore others based on the type and position of the sound. Usually, directional technology gives priority to sound information from the front while attenuating sound from the rear or side.
Power: The maximum compensation capacity of a hearing aid device. If the power of the hearing aid is 90dB, the hearing of the applicable population should be less than 90dB. As shown in the following figure, the shaded range represents the power of this hearing aid.
High-frequency remodeling: Hearing AIDS compress or reduce high-frequency sounds to low and medium frequencies, making it easier for patients who have lost some high-frequency hearing to hear. As people age, high-frequency hearing often begins to decline first. Merely amplifying high-frequency speech is not the best solution, because when the volume is high, the clarity of the speech may instead decrease. Therefore, the high-frequency remodeling function “compresses” high-pitched speech into a lower pitch, making it easier to hear and understand.
Gain: The volume of sound compensated by the hearing aid device at each frequency.
MPO: Maximum Output, the highest sound output by a hearing aid. Generally, the MPO is adjusted by referring to the discomfort threshold, and the MPO must not exceed the wearer’s discomfort threshold.
The above are some professional terms that people often hear, sorted out by Tashao. Take a little time to understand them, and you will find that they are actually not difficult. Mastering some practical knowledge can help you embark on the journey of auditory rehabilitation better and faster.
