Testing was done by using a sensitive microphone that picks up sounds (known as spontaneous otoacoustic emissions or SOAEs) that actually emanate from the ear—a normal byproduct of inner ear mechanics. Normally SOAEs are quite stable over a short period of time. With the volunteers, however, the researchers found the SOAEs began to oscillate after the low frequency exposure, between stronger and weaker emissions until eventually subsiding after about 3 minutes. These findings are troubling because prior research has shown that changes to SOAEs can be tied to hearing damage and they disappear completely when hearing is lost altogether.I am becoming more and more interested in the cognitive effects of disordered hearing. Hearing loss is associated with paranoia.
I have incredible sensitivity to low frequencies, especially fans and motors. The air conditioning here has been making me nervous all summer, I'm so glad we can turn it off now. Those boom box cars make me nauseous. And there was a natural gas powered bus in Seattle that would paralyze me when it went by. Scared the living shit out of me one day when I was driving ...
