IUBio

Do nerve cells die due to little stimulation in hearing loss?

kkollins at pop3.concentric.net kkollins at pop3.concentric.net
Mon Nov 9 18:59:53 EST 1998


I'll not reply directly to your symptoms, but, yes, central neurons die due
to lack of stimulation. Neural trophy is activation-dependent... if it were
not, experience would "make no difference", and "Learning" would be
"impossible". We'd all be automatons (=completely=, not "almost", as has
been the case over the course of the millenia). ken collins

crowley9 at ix.netcom.com wrote:

> Hi there.  I had a head injury about 5 weeks ago and lost about 75% to
> 80% hearing in my right ear.  The ENT doc told me the hearing loss was
> conductive hearing loss instead of hearing loss caused by damage to the
> nervous system.  He said that it would not be a big deal to have surgery
> and fix the ossicle bones (where he thinks the problem is).  I am
> leaning towards waiting about a year or so to see if the problem
> resolves itself (based on info obtained from someone else under similar
> circumstances and from a book on hearing loss) instead of going under
> the knife now.  What I'd like to know is will waiting a year or so hurt
> the nerve cells since the amount of hearing stimulation they are getting
> in that ear is quite low ("use it or lose it")?  Or should I get the
> bones fixed now so that the nerve cells get lots more stimulation and
> thus not die in a year or so?  When I pick up the phone and listen to
> the dial tone in the bad ear, I can barely hear it (loudness intensity
> is about 20% of the other ear) so there is a little bit reaching the
> nerves in that ear but not much.  Anyway *any* input at all on this
> would really be appreciated.  Thanks so much!
>
> Bill






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