After The Music

Understanding why some people are more vulnerable to temporary hearing loss than others.

Most of us have experienced temporary hearing loss after being in a really noisy place: muffled hearing and ringing in our ears, which gradually fade over the subsequent hours and days. But some people seem to be more susceptible than others – why might this be?

Individual characteristics, such as sex and melanin levels, may play a role. Another interesting possibility is sound conditioning, whereby exposure to moderate noise can toughen up the ears, so that subsequent exposure to very loud noise has less impact.

This phenomenon has been demonstrated reliably in animals: loud noise (~100 dB SPL) causes less temporary hearing damage if the animal has been exposed to moderate noise (~80 dB SPL) in the preceding days.

The After The Music study capitalises on the location of The University of Manchester’s hearing labs: one minute from live music venue Manchester Academy.

Research Assistant Carlyn Murray is testing the hearing of 50 young people, before and immediately after a noisy gig at the Academy. She has measured temporary hearing loss in several different ways, and is looking for factors that might affect it, such as sex, skin tone, and conditioning noise exposure.