5. Conclusion
Overall results confirm the improvement in frequency discrimination performance around the cutoff frequency in subjects with steeply sloping hearing loss. This effect does not appear to depend on the pattern of the hearing loss, as it can be observed in subjects with low-frequency, as well as notched hearing losses. Our findings, pointing to the steepness of the hearing loss and the presence of dead cochlear regions as the most important factors of the local DLF enhancement effect, are consistent with an interpretation in terms of injury-induced central auditory reorganization. The reversal of this plasticity after amplification may open some interesting therapeutic horizons. In particular, the benefit of hearing amplification might be conditioned by the occurrence of a secondary plasticity. This issue needs to be investigated by further research.
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Thai-Van, H., Gabriel, D., Collet, L. (2005). Arguments in Favor of Auditory Reorganization in Human Subjects with Cochlear Damage. In: Syka, J., Merzenich, M.M. (eds) Plasticity and Signal Representation in the Auditory System. Springer, Boston, MA . https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-23181-1_35
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