School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, 1966 Inwood Road, Dallas, TX 75235, USA; Eaton-Peabody Laboratories, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, 243 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Harvard Medical School, 243 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Eaton-Peabody Laboratories, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, 243 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Harvard Medical School, 243 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Hear Res. 2023 Sep 15;437:108854. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2023.108854. Epub 2023 Jul 15.
Hyperacusis is a debilitating auditory condition whose characterization is largely qualitative and is typically based on small participant cohorts. Here, we characterize the hearing and demographic profiles of adults who reported hyperacusis upon audiological evaluation at a large medical center. Audiometric data from 626 adults (age 18-80 years) with documented hyperacusis were retrospectively extracted from medical records and compared to an age- and sex-matched reference group of patients from the same clinic who did not report hyperacusis. Patients with hyperacusis had lower (i.e., better) high-frequency hearing thresholds (2000-8000 Hz), but significantly larger interaural threshold asymmetries (250-8000 Hz) relative to the reference group. The probability of reporting hyperacusis was highest for normal, asymmetric, and notched audiometric configurations. Many patients reported unilateral hyperacusis symptoms, a history of noise exposure, and co-morbid tinnitus. The high prevalence of both overt and subclinical hearing asymmetries in the hyperacusis population suggests a central compensatory mechanism that is dominated by input from an intact or minimally damaged ear, and which may lead to perceptual hypersensitivity by overshooting baseline neural activity levels.
听觉过敏是一种使人虚弱的听觉状况，其特征在很大程度上是定性的，通常基于小的参与者队列。在这里，我们描述了在大型医疗中心进行听力评估时报告听觉过敏的成年人的听力和人口统计学特征。从医学记录中回顾性提取了 626 名（18-80 岁）有记录的听觉过敏成年人的听力数据，并将其与来自同一诊所的未报告听觉过敏的年龄和性别匹配的患者参考组进行了比较。与参考组相比，听觉过敏患者的高频听力阈值（2000-8000 Hz）较低（即更好），但耳间阈值差异较大（250-8000 Hz）。报告听觉过敏的概率最高的是正常、不对称和有切迹的听力配置。许多患者报告单侧听觉过敏症状、噪声暴露史和共患耳鸣。听觉过敏人群中明显存在显性和亚临床听力不对称，这表明存在一种中枢补偿机制，该机制主要由健全或轻度受损耳朵的输入主导，这可能导致感知超敏，即超过基线神经活动水平。
