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There is more and more evidence that hearing is something like exercise. If you don't use your hearing on a regular basis, you may not hear as well as someone who does.

Researchers in the United States, England and Japan have studied what happens to children and adults who have hearing loss in both ears but only use a hearing aid in one ear; their ability to understand speech tended to remain steady or improve in their ear with the hearing aid. The ear without a hearing aid tended to deteriorate in its ability to understand speech.

Auditory Deprivation
The term auditory deprivation has been used to describe what happens to an ear that isn't "exercised" very much because of an untreated hearing loss. That ear is deprived of many sounds and tends to decline in its ability to understand speech. The decline will usually reverse itself once the ear is fit with a hearing aid.

There are several theories to explain these effects. One theory is that the unaided ear's ability to process speech deteriorates because the ear itself is not being used. Another theory places the cause at the brain.

The Brain Connection
Although hearing begins at the ear, the brain is where the final processes of hearing occur. Certain areas of the brain are used for vision, hearing, taste, and so on. But imagine an ear with a 50% hearing loss. Only 50% of the sound information is getting to the brain. Since that area of the brain is not being fully used for hearing, perhaps the brain is "re-programmed" for other uses.

Research in England can be used to support both theories. Studies there showed that the benefits of improved amplification did not appear immediately. Speech understanding did not begin to improve until 4-6 weeks after a new hearing aid fitting. Speech understanding then continued to improve for up to 12 weeks after the fitting.

What happened?
Researchers have theorized that the brain "re-wires" itself to handle the new information that is being provided to it. In other words, because of a hearing loss, the ears (and the brain) were not doing very much. Then, with the use of hearing aids, sounds were heard again and the information was sent to the brain. It then took the brain 6 to 12 weeks to re-learn what to do with all of this new information.

Practical implications
What does this mean for people with hearing loss? Researchers have offered several observations:

• The longer a hearing loss is ignored the greater the effects of auditory deprivation. In other words, if you have a hearing loss, the sooner you begin using hearing aids - and using them regularly - the better the results.
  

• In most cases, two hearing aids are better than one. This will keep both ears and both sides of the brain actively involved in hearing.
  

• Some people are unable to adjust to binaural hearing again. If an ear is inactive long enough, the auditory deprivation effect may be irreversible, making it difficult for that ear to adjust to a hearing aid.
  

• Improved hearing takes time. It can take 6-12 weeks to get the full benefits of the new information provided by new hearing aids.