# Linguistics 113: Hearing Science and Hearing Disorders ### Dr. Will Styler --- ### Today's Plan - Questions about class material - Course Overview - Your future in hearing science --- ## Questions? --- ## Most interesting/surprising Part of the class? --- ## Course Overview --- ### Sound is everywhere - We exist in a constant field of air pressure fluctuations - These fluctuations have periods, frequencies, wavelengths, amplitudes, and phase ---
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--- ### We need to know about our environment - We need to understand the physical world around us - But our brains are trapped in a vat of fluid in the dark --- ### Hearing turns sound into signal - Hearing is the process of 'transducing' these fluctuations into useful and usable signal to understand the world - ... and this happens because... --- ## Hearing Physiology is Amazing ---
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--- ### Hearing is a complicated process - Three different transductions - Tens of different anatomical elements - Numerous points of failure - ... and a variety of mysteries even to modern medicine! --- ### Yet it works! - OMG hearing works ever at all - This is AMAZING! - Treasure every bit of your hearing! --- ## Our hearing works weirdly --- ### We're transducing sound into nerve impulses - ... but we're not capturing sounds exactly as they are --- ### We hear sound differently than it is - Sounds can mask our hearing of other sounds - Our anatomy increases the power of some frequencies - Our cochlea amplifies the signal further - Pitch isn't frequency, Loudness isn't amplitude - Distortions help us to understand their sources and locations --- ### Our hearing is 'flawed' relative to the physics of sounds - ... but it's flawed for good reasons! - These distortions focus our attention on the things that matter in our environment - These distortions define and enable the process of human hearing! --- ### ... but this process is fragile - Any breakdown in the system can damage our hearing - ... and damaged hearing can negatively impact many lives --- ## Helping Hearing --- ### Many, many people live with hearing loss - 2-3 of every 1000 children are born with detectable hearing loss - ~15% of American adults have some hearing trouble - 5 out of 6 of children have otitis media by the time they're 3 years old --- ### Audiologists play an important role in helping hearing - They help to detect hearing pathologies with examinations - Audiometry helps to characterize the nature of hearing loss - ... and audiologists coordinate with doctors to address more serious disorders --- ### All of this can help patients identify the best solutions for them - Perhaps it's just knowledge of the loss, and encouragement towards sign - Perhaps it's a hearing aid or two - Maybe there's a surgical intervention that can help - Maybe even CIs - Or perhaps the best choice is to focus on living a full life in the deaf community - ... and focus on a kind of language which suits your strengths --- ### ... but that's not necessarily your path --- ## Your future in hearing science --- ### There are many paths - You might consider a future in hearing science, audiology or hearing medicine - Where you'll work with hearing directly - You could stay in linguistics, focusing in phonetics and speech perception - Where the details of hearing are a crucial part of your work - Perhaps you'll move on to other spoken language work - Where hearing and hearing disorders will be a crucial, if silent, part of your life - ... or maybe you'll go on and do something else altogether - But you'll still be listening to the world! --- ### I'm still deeply appreciative - This is a class I've wanted to teach since I've wanted to teach - You've put in incredible work - ... I've appreciated your understanding during the bumpy bits --- ### Thank you to Maxine and Vivian! - They've helped this quarter go smoothly --- ### I hope that you all enjoyed the material - That you learned a great deal about hearing - That you'll never have firsthand knowledge of any of these disorders - That you have a newfound appreciation for a 'boring' sense - ... and that you're kind to your ears ---
Thank you!