09/04/2026
Auditory Acclimatisation - what it means and why it matters.
A common misconception encountered when people first pursue hearing aid management is the assumption that hearing aids cure hearing loss. Essentially, hearing aid management is a treatment method, not a cure. As it stands, sensorineural hearing loss is deemed permanent damage, changing the sensitivity and functioning of the cochlea (the hearing organ).
Hearing devices work to amplify sound, thereby making it loud enough for the damaged areas of the cochlea to perceive the sound – ultimately, working with the damaged areas, rather than curing the damage underlying.
A hearing aid helps restore access to sound and is certainly the first step to treating a hearing loss, but as we often tell patients, it is not a “quick fix” solution. The brain must adapt and relearn how to process and interpret the new auditory information. This adaptation is referred to as ‘Auditory Acclimatisation’. Auditory acclimatisation is a complex and critical phase of rehabilitating a hearing loss and an awful lot of hearing loss patients and their family members have little to no awareness of this process.
To explain it at its most basic – we detect sound with our ears, but we hear and listen with our brain. An analogy often used is that of a train track: each sound the ear can hear has a corresponding pathway (train track) from the ear to the auditory cortex, which is the listening centre of the brain. Imagine your ear is a train station and the cochlea (the hearing organ) is the train conductor. When the train conductor hears a sound, they let the relevant train leave the station, using the correct train track to travel for its end destination - the listening centre, where it deposits its cargo – sound information - for the brain to interpret and understand.
With hearing loss, the cochlea starts to miss some sounds, and tracks which used to be stimulated and used dozens of times in an hour now sit unused for longer and longer periods of time. This is a process referred to as Auditory Deprivation. On average, it takes people approximately 10 years before they treat their hearing loss. During that time, the pathways from the ear to the listening centres of the brain often become neglected, the train tracks are used less and less overtime.
Moreover, when sounds are reintroduced to the listening centre, often the brain no longer recognises them and has to work to re-categorise simple everyday sounds – such as hearing a clock ticking, or the sound of paper, or even simply footsteps on a tile floor. As such, there is a lot of ‘brain training’ involved in the early stages of hearing aid use.
With consistent daily use of a hearing aid, the wearer affords the cochlea a chance to hear the sounds it previously was not sensitive to catch, and the ear and brain will begin to gradually acclimatise over time.
The amount of time it takes to acclimatize varies from patient to patient – however, we now know that patients can help themselves by engaging in specific ‘brain training’ exercises, known as auditory training. Auditory training programme, such as Neurotone’s LACE training, can help accelerate the brain’s relearning progress. Auditory training in conjunction with hearing aid use has been shown to foster much better outcomes for hearing aid users in complex listening situations – such as listening to speech in noise, accented English , or rapid speech.
Hearing is one of our most valuable senses, yet it's often taken for granted until it's impaired. If looking for an appointment to have your hearing assessed, please contact the clinic on 043 336 8029 or email info@midlandhearingcare.com
