Presbycusis

Presbycusis is age-related, usually gradual hearing loss that commonly affects high-frequency sounds. It often reflects changes in the inner ear and auditory pathways.

Cochlear hair cell: A sensory cell in the inner ear that converts sound-driven movement into electrical signals. Damage to hair cells, especially those detecting high pitches, is a common contributor to age-related hearing loss.
Pure-tone audiometry: A hearing test that measures the quietest tones a person can detect at different frequencies. Its frequency-specific thresholds reveal the characteristic high-frequency decline associated with presbycusis.
Cochlea: The spiral-shaped inner-ear structure that converts sound vibrations into neural signals. Its sensory structures are central sites of the damage associated with presbycusis.
Speech-in-noise testing: A hearing assessment that measures how well speech is understood against competing background sound. Presbycusis can make noisy settings disproportionately difficult, even when quiet speech remains understandable.
Stria vascularis: A vascular tissue in the cochlea that maintains the electrical conditions required for hearing. Age-related decline in this tissue can weaken cochlear function across a broad range of frequencies.
Speech audiometry: A set of hearing tests that measures detection and recognition of spoken words. It assesses the speech-understanding difficulties that pure tones alone cannot capture.
Hair cell: A sensory receptor cell that detects movement in the inner ear and supports hearing or balance. Cochlear hair cells are the sound-detecting units whose age-related loss can reduce hearing sensitivity.
Social isolation: A condition of having limited social contact or connection with other people. Communication barriers from untreated hearing loss can lead people to withdraw from conversations and activities.
Auditory nerve: The nerve pathway that carries sound information from the cochlea toward the brain. Changes in auditory nerve fibers can impair hearing even when some cochlear hair cells remain.
Hearing aid: An electronic device that amplifies and processes sound for a person with hearing loss. Hearing aids can improve access to speech and environmental sounds when presbycusis limits audibility.

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