Listen up.
Lots of people rely on noise-canceling headphones to tune out distractions at work, on public transportation or during exercise — but frequently using the technology to tune out your surroundings may be damaging your brain, doctors are now warning.
Five audiology departments within the UK’s NHS told the BBC that they’ve seen an increase in young people who have hearing issues. Upon further testing, they’ve discovered that the problem doesn’t lie within the ear but is actually caused by a brain problem.
Many of these people are being diagnosed with auditory processing disorder (APD), a neurological condition that interferes with a person’s ability to process sounds.
Though someone with ADP will pass hearing tests — meaning their ears are functioning as they’re supposed to — they may have trouble deciphering more specific elements of sounds, like where a noise is coming from.
They may also have trouble understanding another person speaking in a noisy room, or if that person is speaking fast. These people may need things repeated or take longer to reply in conversation.
“The brain processes these electrical impulses into sounds, then into words, and then into meaningful sentences and ideas,” neurologist Martin Kutscher, MD, told Additude. “Most of us do it effortlessly. Some adults have problems in converting these electrical neuronal impulses into meaning. We call these problems central auditory processing disorders.”
Other symptoms include trouble remembering spoken instructions, difficulty listening to music or challenges in learning new languages.
APD typically starts in childhood, affecting 2% to 7% of kids. It can also affect their ability to read and spell. In those cases, it’s usually caused by an illness like a head injury, low birth weight or chronic ear infections or meningitis — but this rise in young adults with ADP is new.
Claire Benton, vice president of the British Academy of Audiology, told the BBC that adults’ brains may “forget” how to process ambient noises because of widespread headphone use.
“You have almost created this false environment by wearing those headphones of only listening to what you want to listen to. You are not having to work at it,” she said.
All that noise-canceling can cause your brain to overcompensate, according to David McAlpine, the academic director of Macquarie University Hearing, which can lead to increased sensitivity and what he calls “listening loss.”
“If you have a listening loss, it’s like changing your brain’s encryption,” he told Quartz. “Even if you can change what you’re hearing, you may not get back to the brain state that you had before. It’s not reversible.”
“I do think that we’ve let the big tech companies co-opt our listening habits, monetize it, and sell it back to us,” said McAlpine. “Their solution to the hearing problem is probably creating a listening problem.”
That many young adults have been using headphones like these since adolescence isn’t helping.
“Those more complex, high-level listening skills in your brain only really finish developing toward your late teens. So, if you have only been wearing noise-canceling headphones and been in this false world for your late teens, then you are slightly delaying your ability to process speech and noise,” Benton added.
Several doctors say more research needs to be done on how noise-canceling headphones can impact the brain.
“What does the future look like if we don’t investigate this link?” said audiologist Dr. Angela Alexander, owner of APD Support.
She worries, in particular, about the effect they could have on children whose brains are still developing.
“There are a lot of well-meaning parents and teachers who think the answer to children having problems with noise is to wear earplugs or having noise-cancelling headphones on,” she noted.
There is no cure for APD, and treatment typically involves managing one’s environment. For example, a person with APD may sit closer to the speaker in a work meeting, ask people to speak slower or request information in writing. Speech therapy can also help.
Doctors have cautioned for years that listening to headphones at loud volumes can cause damage to ears, but this new warning indicates that even lower volumes can cause damage, just in a different way.
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