JUST about everybody at one point or another has experienced itchy ears. One of the most common questions I am asked in my practice is: “what makes my ears itch?” There are a variety of causes of itchy ears ranging from temporary and easily treatable to chronic and difficult to treat. Itchy ears can be…
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With the exception of Deaf signing communities, verbal communication is at the core of our social existence. It allows us to convey an assortment of messages ranging from basic needs to abstract concepts. When we think of verbal communication, we immediately recognize that language and hearing are the necessary tools of the trade. Yet there are…
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It seems every week there is report of yet another advancement in artificial intelligence (AI), each replicating or exceeding some  ability once deemed the exclusive domain of human intellect. It is touted in the popular media that self-driving cars will soon become the norm, as computer controlled auto-pilots are safer than human drivers. Even hearing…
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When referring to pitch, we think about how high or low a note is on  a relative scale. Pitch is an acoustic carrier of meaning, as the different phonemes of speech and the overall intonation of voice is denoted by changes in pitch. Melody is also made possible by pitch modulation. Aside from emotional and…
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Your ear is an amazing piece of engineering. It converts vibrations in the air into meaningful perception. As sound travels along the auditory pathways it is converted into three different forms of energy (mechanical, hydraulic and neuro-chemical) before it is actually heard. By physical definition, sound is a repeating molecular disturbance that propagates in all…
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As far as physical phenomena go, infrasound has probably been implicated in more mysterious events than just about anything else on the planet. From ghost sightings and sleep deprivation, to a sense of impending doom, infrasound has been offered as an explanation for a myriad of strange occurrences. In terms of pure physics, there is…
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Household appliances seem to have a tendency of letting us down at the most inopportune moments. The car that won’t start when you have an appointment to get to, an oven that stops working in the hours before a dinner party, a clothes drier that gives up in the middle of a rainy patch, and…
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For those hearing aid wearers who may have only achieved mixed results from their hearing aids, it is only natural for them to wonder whether a premium priced set of devices would change the outcome. There is no shortage of older hearing aid wearers who complain about difficulties hearing in crowds and other noisy environments.…
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Hearing that fluctuates over time can cause annoyance and distress, especially when the cause is not yet identified. Fluctuating hearing may range from mild and transient, to severe and long lasting. Apart from hearing loss, other symptoms may include a feeling of fullness, imbalance/dizziness, tinnitus (noises in the ear) and nausea. The specific combination of…
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Both our sense of hearing and our sense of vision allow us to perceive crucial but very different information about our surroundings. Our eyes relay the location and movement of objects in our visual field, while our ears convey information about the actions of objects both in and outside of our visual field. Despite the…
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