Effects of Exposure to an Augmented Acoustic Environment on the Auditory System

Millions of individuals worldwide experience sensorineural hearing loss. The current treatments include prescription of conventional hearing aids. Hearing aids have varying degrees of success in patients experiencing considerable hearing loss. Recently, augmented acoustic environment (AAE) has been proposed as a method for alleviating the severity and progression of sensorineural hearing loss disorders, involving the exposure of patients to augmented levels of controlled acoustic stimulation. Treatment efficacy was assessed in other progressive sensorineural hearing loss disorders, such as presbycusis, in which the aim of the treatment was to reduce the damage to the auditory system following noise-induced hearing loss and to promote the migration of transplanted cells to the injured region. Different factors such as age, sex, level of sexual hormones, location of the effect (cochlea or anterior ventral cochlear nucleus [AVCN]), frequency, tonotopic organization, and hearing sensitivity determine the effect of AAE on the auditory system.
Articles published between 1988 and 2014 related to the effects of augmented acoustic environment on the function of auditory system were searched and selected for review from Google scholar, PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect databases.
The study of the factors determining the effectiveness of AAE has applications for hearing aids (following exposure to AAE), or the control of environmental noise for individuals who are at risk for hearing loss. Amplification of certain frequencies in the damaged area of the cochlea during the fitting of hearing aids may have similar peripheral and central (positive or negative) effects as those reported in other studies on AAE.