Best of Hearing Aids for deaf Audiophiles? Huh???

Today, I found the following bit of information stored and almost forgotten on my hard drive:

Background Noises Can Scramble the Brain

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (United Press International via COMTEX 10/03/2004) -- U.S. researchers said background noises actually may scramble brain activity as well as make conversations more difficult.

The discovery could explain why even perfectly loud speech can be difficult to understand in a noisy room, University of Florida researchers said.

The researchers studied how alert rats' brain cells responded to specific sounds while one of three standardized noises played in the background. They discovered that brain activity actually decreased in the presence of background noise.

Background noise did not simply cover up sounds, they said. It interfered with the brain's ability to process or interpret information about a sound, even though the sound was heard. Essentially, they said, the brain could not understand what the ear was telling it.

The phenomenon could play a role in an auditory processing disorder first noticed in children in the 1970s. The lack of coordination between the ear and brain that characterizes the disorder is thought to be widespread, although it is difficult to diagnose.

The findings could influence the design of hearing devices, MP3 music players and virtually any audio transmission technology, the researchers said.

Fat- You better keep that FAR away from your teenage children (if you have any). They will make your life miserable if they ever see that headline. Scrambled brains, indeed.

My husband thinks that I need to adapt to everyone else when I tell them that I can't hear his conversation to me with the radio on and the kids screaming right behind me. Is there a name for this? Do I need hearing aides? What should I do? I feel like I'm going crazy because I can't understand (hear) what a person is saying unless I look at their lips to read them with noise (parties, etc.) going on.

all of you are lucky.....i`m receiving a divorce from my wife because of this.....``i`m sorry honey what did you say``?

I can only relate my wife's experience. Thankfully, my hearing is still excellent at 53. She has a new set of Siemens Acuris Life digital behind the ear aids. The electronics are in a very small & light behind the ear capsule, the amplified sound is directed into the ear canal through a tiny silicone tube that is suspended in the ear canal by something that looks like a flattened small silicone badminton birdy. The beauty of this design is that the ear canal is open, no hard plastic squished into the ear, very comfortable she says. Traditional in the ear aids drove her crazy because when both ear canals are occluded, one's own speech sounds distorted and eating isn't fun. As to audio fidelity, I obviously can only relate her impressions. She feels these are in a new league compared to what she used before and readily discerns changes in cabling or commponents in the audio system that are fairly subtle. I guess the fact that she says she never thinks about having hearing problems when they are in says a great deal. They retail at about $3k per ear, but she got a really good discount as an early adopter when they were introduced to the market.