HEARING AID STUDY EXAM GUIDE 2025/2026 QUESTIONS
WITH ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔What sensory-neural hearing loss (SNHL)? - ✔✔damage to the inner ear or nerve
pathways
✔✔What causes SNHL? - ✔✔damage to hair cells due to innate vulnerability, noise, old
age, ototoxic drugs; damage to auditory nerve often due to acoustic neuroma
✔✔What are examples of ototoxic drugs? - ✔✔chemotherapeutic agents such as
cisplatin, NSAIDs and quinine
✔✔What is an acoustic neuroma? - ✔✔something pressing, likely a tumor, on the
acoustic nerve that results in dizziness, loss of balance, facial numbness, hearing loss,
and tinnitus
✔✔What does the typical audiogram of CHL look like? - ✔✔bone conduction test:
threshold at 0dB (bc problem is conduction) but using air conduction test: hearing level
in decibels is at aroung 50dB
✔✔What is the bone conduction test? - ✔✔vibrator in temporal bone- only in smaller
frequency range bc cant detect higher than 4khz
✔✔What does cytomegalovirus infection cause? - ✔✔SNHL- congential hearing loss
(0.2-1% of newborns--> SNHL in 8-32% of the babies)
✔✔What is the treatment for congenital HL by CMV? - ✔✔cochlear implant asap
✔✔What happens when hearing loss is conductive? - ✔✔majority of freq are equally
affected
✔✔What is sudden SNHL? - ✔✔mainly idiopathic, usually unilateral sudden HL, with
40% spont recovery in 2 weeks
✔✔How is sudden SNHL treated? - ✔✔hyperbaric oxygen therapy, local/systemic
steroids (urgent)
✔✔What is presbyacusis? - ✔✔age related hearing loss
✔✔What is a typical age-related hearing loss audiogram? - ✔✔hair cell transduction
becomes less effective and affects high freq first - getting progressively worse with age
✔✔What enhances speech perception in noise? - ✔✔extended high freq hearing (8 to
20 kHz) that may influence speech intelligibility
, ✔✔What is clinical audiometry, by which hearing loss is diagnosed, limited at? - ✔✔high
frequencies to 8 kHz
✔✔What is a typical noise damage audiogram? - ✔✔SNHL caused by noise exposure-
worse between 4-8kHz
✔✔What is auditory neuropathy? - ✔✔a hearing disorder in which sound enters the
inner ear normally but the transmission of signals from the inner ear to the brain is
impaired (SGC disconnect)
✔✔Is auditory neuropathy detected by normal audiometry? - ✔✔not unless background
noise is added
✔✔What is auditory synaptopathy? - ✔✔activity in IHC potential is normal but no activity
in aud nerve- block of ribbon synapse (between IHC and SGC) so no connection
✔✔What is the amplification provided by the ear trumpet? - ✔✔linear, but non linear
(compressive) amplification would provide better compensation for OHC damage
✔✔What is hidden hearing loss? - ✔✔hearing loss that doesnt show up on an
audiogram
✔✔What do modern hearing aids have? - ✔✔non linear amplification which must be
matched to the hearing loss of the patient- may use directional mics and digital signal
processing to do things such as noise suppression or frequency shifting
✔✔How do current hearing aids aid artificially replace amplification and compression no
longer provided by OHCs (Lesica 2018)? - ✔✔multichannel wide dynamic range
compression- enhances perception of weak sounds but not sufficient to restore speech
perc in noisy evs
✔✔How many hearing aids are never worn? - ✔✔~ 12% likely bc dont meet patients
needs
✔✔How does the information sent from hearing aids differ from those sent by normal
ear (Lesica 2018)? - ✔✔cross freq interactions are eliminated by OHC dysfunction so
AN activity patterns are qualitatively different
✔✔What are cross frequency interactions? - ✔✔non linear processing means diff freq
interact- degree to which any particular freq- amplified depends not only on the power at
that freqbut also on the power at other freq
WITH ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔What sensory-neural hearing loss (SNHL)? - ✔✔damage to the inner ear or nerve
pathways
✔✔What causes SNHL? - ✔✔damage to hair cells due to innate vulnerability, noise, old
age, ototoxic drugs; damage to auditory nerve often due to acoustic neuroma
✔✔What are examples of ototoxic drugs? - ✔✔chemotherapeutic agents such as
cisplatin, NSAIDs and quinine
✔✔What is an acoustic neuroma? - ✔✔something pressing, likely a tumor, on the
acoustic nerve that results in dizziness, loss of balance, facial numbness, hearing loss,
and tinnitus
✔✔What does the typical audiogram of CHL look like? - ✔✔bone conduction test:
threshold at 0dB (bc problem is conduction) but using air conduction test: hearing level
in decibels is at aroung 50dB
✔✔What is the bone conduction test? - ✔✔vibrator in temporal bone- only in smaller
frequency range bc cant detect higher than 4khz
✔✔What does cytomegalovirus infection cause? - ✔✔SNHL- congential hearing loss
(0.2-1% of newborns--> SNHL in 8-32% of the babies)
✔✔What is the treatment for congenital HL by CMV? - ✔✔cochlear implant asap
✔✔What happens when hearing loss is conductive? - ✔✔majority of freq are equally
affected
✔✔What is sudden SNHL? - ✔✔mainly idiopathic, usually unilateral sudden HL, with
40% spont recovery in 2 weeks
✔✔How is sudden SNHL treated? - ✔✔hyperbaric oxygen therapy, local/systemic
steroids (urgent)
✔✔What is presbyacusis? - ✔✔age related hearing loss
✔✔What is a typical age-related hearing loss audiogram? - ✔✔hair cell transduction
becomes less effective and affects high freq first - getting progressively worse with age
✔✔What enhances speech perception in noise? - ✔✔extended high freq hearing (8 to
20 kHz) that may influence speech intelligibility
, ✔✔What is clinical audiometry, by which hearing loss is diagnosed, limited at? - ✔✔high
frequencies to 8 kHz
✔✔What is a typical noise damage audiogram? - ✔✔SNHL caused by noise exposure-
worse between 4-8kHz
✔✔What is auditory neuropathy? - ✔✔a hearing disorder in which sound enters the
inner ear normally but the transmission of signals from the inner ear to the brain is
impaired (SGC disconnect)
✔✔Is auditory neuropathy detected by normal audiometry? - ✔✔not unless background
noise is added
✔✔What is auditory synaptopathy? - ✔✔activity in IHC potential is normal but no activity
in aud nerve- block of ribbon synapse (between IHC and SGC) so no connection
✔✔What is the amplification provided by the ear trumpet? - ✔✔linear, but non linear
(compressive) amplification would provide better compensation for OHC damage
✔✔What is hidden hearing loss? - ✔✔hearing loss that doesnt show up on an
audiogram
✔✔What do modern hearing aids have? - ✔✔non linear amplification which must be
matched to the hearing loss of the patient- may use directional mics and digital signal
processing to do things such as noise suppression or frequency shifting
✔✔How do current hearing aids aid artificially replace amplification and compression no
longer provided by OHCs (Lesica 2018)? - ✔✔multichannel wide dynamic range
compression- enhances perception of weak sounds but not sufficient to restore speech
perc in noisy evs
✔✔How many hearing aids are never worn? - ✔✔~ 12% likely bc dont meet patients
needs
✔✔How does the information sent from hearing aids differ from those sent by normal
ear (Lesica 2018)? - ✔✔cross freq interactions are eliminated by OHC dysfunction so
AN activity patterns are qualitatively different
✔✔What are cross frequency interactions? - ✔✔non linear processing means diff freq
interact- degree to which any particular freq- amplified depends not only on the power at
that freqbut also on the power at other freq
