Methods of medical and self-testing of hearing. Hearing examination and diagnosis online using tests

I accidentally came across an interesting and useful test on the Internet - online hearing test.

It’s sad, but it’s a fact - we are all not getting any younger, but quite the opposite. As we age, our hearing deteriorates—for some, more, and for others, just a little. For some, this sad process happens quickly, but for most people it is very slow and completely unnoticeable.

This is why periodic hearing testing is imperative. You can (and should) go to the doctor every year, but which of us, feeling healthy, goes to him?

I really hope it’s simple and quick test the hearing test, which is located at the end of the article, will make you worry about your health before it’s too late.

This test consists of five stages. The first is just an introduction, at which you need to click on the “Continue” button, and the last (fifth stage) is the verdict itself.

The second stage of the online hearing test is calibration. You need to use the slider to set what will be on the right, the sound level you can barely hear...

During the test itself, you will no longer be able to change it.

The third stage is again practically useless - short instructions for people with very low level intelligence. It tells you that when you hear a sound, you need to press the “I hear” button, and when you don’t hear it, you need to press “No”...

And finally, the fourth stage - the test itself or an online hearing test...

...after completing it you will be shown the result...

I also changed the size of the window, which caused the font to be slightly distorted - I apologize wildly, but otherwise the test simply would not have fit on the page.

It seems like he told and explained everything - proceed to the online hearing test...

Online hearing test

This test must be taken in complete silence, or even better - in good headphones.

Get started...

That's all online hearing testing is all about. I really hope that your test result is the same as mine. Until new useful ones computer programs and advice.

The person is deteriorating, and over time we lose the ability to detect a certain frequency.

Video made by the channel AsapSCIENCE, is a kind of age-related hearing loss test that will help you find out your hearing limits.

Various sounds are played in the video, starting at 8000 Hz, which means your hearing is not impaired.

The frequency then increases and this indicates the age of your hearing based on when you stop hearing a particular sound.

So if you hear a frequency:

12,000 Hz – you are under 50 years old

15,000 Hz – you are under 40 years old

16,000 Hz – you are under 30 years old

17,000 – 18,000 – you are under 24 years old

19,000 – you are under 20 years old

If you want the test to be more accurate, you should set the video quality to 720p or better yet 1080p, and listen with headphones.

Hearing test (video)

Hearing loss

If you heard all the sounds, you are most likely under 20 years old. Results depend on sensory receptors in your ear called hair cells which become damaged and degenerate over time.

This type of hearing loss is called sensorineural hearing loss. This disorder can be caused by a number of infections, medications and autoimmune diseases. Outer hair cells, which are tuned to trap more high frequencies, are usually the first to die, and so the effect of age-related hearing loss occurs, as demonstrated in this video.

Human hearing: interesting facts

1. Among healthy people frequency range that can pick up human ear ranges from 20 (lower than the lowest note on a piano) to 20,000 Hertz (higher than the highest note on a small flute). However, the upper limit of this range decreases steadily with age.

2. People talk to each other at a frequency from 200 to 8000 Hz, and the human ear is most sensitive to a frequency of 1000 – 3500 Hz

3. Sounds that are above the limit of human audibility are called ultrasound, and those below - infrasound.

4. Ours my ears don't stop working even in my sleep, continuing to hear sounds. However, our brain ignores them.

5. Sound travels at 344 meters per second. A sonic boom occurs when an object exceeds the speed of sound. Sound waves in front and behind the object collide and create a shock.

6. Ears - self-cleaning organ. The pores in the ear canal secrete earwax, and tiny hairs called cilia push wax out of the ear

7. The sound of a baby crying is approximately 115 dB, and it's louder than a car horn.

8. In Africa there is a Maaban tribe who live in such silence that even in old age they hear whispers up to 300 meters away.

9. Level bulldozer sound idling is about 85 dB (decibels), which can cause hearing damage after just one 8-hour day.

10. Sitting in front speakers at a rock concert, you're exposing yourself to 120 dB, which begins to damage your hearing after just 7.5 minutes.

When you want to choose headphones, you research them technical specifications, where among others there is the value o. This value is important because it reflects the technical ability of headphones to reproduce frequencies that a person can hear.

If a person’s hearing is not damaged, then he can distinguish sound at frequencies from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. However, this is ideally real life our range will be different, and what’s more sad, it will be narrower than the classic 20 Hz - 20,000 Hz.

What does a person hear and what does hearing health depend on?

The older we get, the worse our hearing becomes. Like everything else in our body, hearing begins to perform its tasks worse with age.

Those who are already about 30 years old can hardly distinguish a sound at a frequency of 20,000 Hz; they simply do not hear it, because hearing began to deteriorate. This is not a disease and not something to seriously worry about, this is how our hearing organ works - it does not recover and only gets worse over time.

By the age of 40, you will most likely no longer be able to distinguish sounds at a frequency of 18,000 Hz or even 17,000 Hz, and by the age of 50 good result It is considered to hear a sound at a frequency of 15,000 Hz.

Of course, each person’s hearing is unique; someone even at 50 years old can hear a sound with a frequency of 17,000 Hz, while others cannot even hear 12,000 Hz.

As I said above, hearing is not restored. The design of the organ is such that special hairs are responsible for irritating the nerve endings, which move when exposed to sound, i.e. air. With age, some hairs die off, while others are irreversibly damaged by listening to loud sounds.

Yes, yes, your hearing can be damaged simply by going to concerts often, or working as a construction worker with heavy equipment, like a jackhammer, without hearing protection.

Every day we subject our hearing to serious tests, and every day it gets worse. Even a trip on the subway without headphones with active noise reduction slightly worsens our ability to perceive sound every time, and this is irreversible.

Therefore, you need to think about health from a young age, without expecting a noticeable degradation of the ability to hear, because there is no turning back.

Online hearing testing

Well, enough theory, let's check how well you hear different sound frequencies.

For simplicity and clarity, there will be only 4 frequencies that will show your current capabilities.

The fact is that hearing degradation occurs from the edges of the audible range, provided that there is no injury to the eardrum or disease of the inner ear.

Thus, it is clear that if changes in hearing have begun, then you will begin to hear worse at the border of the possible, i.e. at a frequency of 20 Hz or 20000 Hz. And the narrower the range, the more your hearing is damaged.

If you hear sound at 20 Hz, then you are fine with the perception of the lower threshold and that’s great. This means your hearing is more or less good condition, but don’t rejoice ahead of time, let’s listen to the following sounds.

Sound at 250 Hz is very important for our life. A lot of sounds from the surrounding world, people and animals sound approximately at this frequency, so if you hear it, then you can live a full life normal life. But if you can’t hear it, this is a reason to immediately consult a doctor; even very old people who have not had hearing injuries can hear this sound well.

Sound at 2 kHz here only for the general picture, it should be heard by absolutely all people who have not had injuries to their hearing organs or their serious illness. This is one of the most loaded frequencies, because Most instruments sound at this frequency. There are also quite a lot of high women's voices use this frequency and therefore it is extremely important for human life.

This is a test piece that reproduces 16 kHz sound. According to statistics, not every person who has lived to be 30 years old can hear this sound. Therefore, if you cannot hear it well and you are over 30 years old, then no big reasons for frustration. Of course, it’s a pity that your hearing has begun to deteriorate, but you are not yet outside the norm and there is no particular reason to worry. Although, of course, going to a doctor and having your hearing tested using professional equipment would not be a bad idea.

Let me just say that I am now 34 years old and I hear sound at a frequency of 16 kHz clearly and distinctly. Perhaps I should praise myself that I hear a little more than my peers.

This is a test recording sound with a frequency of 20 kHz. According to statistics, not all people over 20 years of age can hear it, even if they have never had any injuries or diseases of the hearing organs.

If you are over 20 years old and have not heard anything, do not be upset, this, unfortunately, is normal.

Personally, I no longer hear this frequency, but I am already 34 years old and this is absolutely normal for my age, although, of course, a little sad.

Why hearing testing is important for everyone

Of course ours online testing hearing is quite fluent, moreover, it was carried out on your personal equipment, which can cause distortion and disrupt the purity of the experiment.

However, even such testing may make you think about your hearing health. After all, if you are still young, but already have trouble hearing the 16 kHz frequency, then you probably need to see a doctor for a more serious approach to this problem.

Plus, this quick test shows that for people over 30, there's little point in worrying about not listening or having Bluetooth headphones as their primary headphones.

The fact is that codecs for wireless transmission of music from music to save throughput Bluetooth channel, thereby increasing the stability of data transmission. And if you are young and listen to records, then you should think about using quality wired headphones. But if you are already 40 years old or older, then the quality of music transmission via Bluetooth will be enough for you, because... Those frequencies that are artificially cut off during encoding, you most likely will no longer hear and will not feel the difference in sound quality.

As you can see, every cloud has a silver lining. Yes, we are all getting older every year, and our hearing is fading, but now we can listen to comfortable music without a twinge of conscience and not worry about the quality of music transmission; online hearing testing has clearly shown us that this no longer matters much.

The human hearing organ has a complex and at the same time unique structure. So, the ears are responsible for many important functions in the structure of man. First of all, the human hearing organ is necessary for the receptivity of sounds, their processing and conversion into decibels, and then sending them to the brain. In addition, the ear is responsible for human balance.

In case of dysfunction of any department, a person experiences ear pain and headaches, loss of hearing acuity, a feeling of congestion, and others. unpleasant symptoms, which can knock a person out of his usual way of life for a long time. In order to test the sensitivity of sounds, there are hearing testing programs.

Not all people can notice immediate hearing loss. In most cases, sound sensitivity occurs gradually. At this time, a person loses the ability to hear the lowest sounds. To determine the sensitivity of your hearing, you can take a hearing test online or contact a medical center.

However, a person pays attention to minor changes in the ear organ only after a hearing test. But truly human begins to worry only when he notices that the range of audibility has noticeably changed. Usually at this time a person cannot understand a whisper from an arm’s length distance or feels a problem understanding speech on TV or on the radio.

Cause hearing impairment lies in dysfunction middle region organ of hearing. The middle region is located after the outer part of the ear organ and in front of the inner ear. The middle region does not have a complex, but exceptional structure, and thanks to its work, a person perceives both the highest and low-frequency sounds.

Besides this, this part distinguishes and enhances signals, intonations and various noises.

In general, the following elements are responsible for the operation and transmission of sounds:

Outdoor area. It includes auricle and external auditory canal. It is separated from the middle region of the hearing organ by the eardrum.
Middle ear. After the eardrum there is the middle ear, the Eustachian tube and the auditory ossicles.
Interior has one of the most unusual structures in the human body. The second name of the described area is a labyrinth. The main task of the labyrinth is to maintain human balance.

IN anatomy ear includes the following elements:

curl;
antihelix;
antitragus;
earlobe.

Due to their complex and unique structure, they rarely enter the hearing organ. various bacteria and infections, and external factors cannot affect human health.

Therefore, almost all ear diseases occur during periods of weak immune system or as a result of the penetration of viruses through the nasopharynx.

The structure of the middle part of the hearing organ

As we have already found out, the reason for decreased hearing acuity and other inflammations lies in a disease of the middle part of the ear. Before identifying the reasons, let’s understand the structure of this element.

Everyone knows that the middle ear is located behind the eardrum and is located near the temporal part. In the depths temporal region the following are located parts of the middle ear:

IN temporal bone located mastoid. It connects the tympanic and temporal parts.
Between the temporal region and the external auditory canal there is tympanic cavity.
This area connects to the nasopharynx using eustachian tube. Its functions include pressure regulation.

These three elements have numerous functions and additional structures.

So, the main area of the middle ear is tympanic cavity. Its structure includes the following components:

TO eardrum the hammer is adjacent. He transmits the received sound waves further to the auditory ossicles.
The second component of the bones is the anvil. It is located after the malleus, but before the stirrup. The main function of this bone is to transmit sound vibrations further in the direction.
The stapes covers the auditory ossicles. Its function is to transmit sound vibrations to inner ear, and then to the brain. Interestingly, this area is considered the lightest bone not only in the ears, but in the entire body. Its size is about four millimeters and its weight is 2.5 mg.