People with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) face a puzzling hearing problem. They can detect sounds at normal volumes, but understanding speech is extremely difficult. The disconnect between hearing and comprehension causes daily communication challenges that standard hearing aids often can’t fix.
As a double board-certified surgeon specializing in otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ENT) and facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, Steven D. Kushnick, MD, uses specialized testing to diagnose ANSD and find treatment approaches that address your specific hearing challenges at our Brooklyn, New York, office.
With ANSD, your inner ear detects sounds normally, but somewhere between your ear and brain, the electrical signals get disrupted or distorted. Your brain receives these scrambled signals and can’t make sense of them, even though your ears are working fine.
This explains why standard hearing tests often show normal results even if you struggle to understand speech. The volume isn’t the problem; it’s the clarity of the signal your brain receives.
Many types of hearing loss stifle sound. But with ANSD, sounds are loud enough — they just don’t make sense. You might experience:
People can shout at you and you might still have trouble understanding exactly what they’re saying. Quiet one-on-one conversations in a silent room might be understandable, but when there’s any background noise, comprehension becomes challenging.
Some days seem like “better hearing days” than others for no apparent reason. This happens because the disrupted nerve signals vary in how well they work over time.
Your brain struggles to process overlapping voices when the signals arrive scrambled or out of sync.
When your brain gets poorly timed signals from both ears, it can’t determine which direction sounds are coming from.
ANSD develops when something interferes with the pathway between your inner ear and brain. Common causes include:
Understanding what caused your ANSD helps Dr. Kushnick determine which treatment approaches might work best for your particular situation.
Since we can’t usually repair the disrupted nerve signals, treatment focuses on finding alternative ways to get clear information to your brain.
Some modern hearing aids with special programming can help certain ANSD patients by emphasizing specific frequencies and reducing background noise.
Cochlear implants bypass the damaged auditory nerve pathway entirely by sending electrical signals directly to your brain.
FM listening devices can help people with milder ANSD. These systems send the speaker’s voice directly to a receiver you wear, cutting through background noise that makes it difficult to understand speech.
Learning to use visual cues, lip read, and other communication techniques provides helpful in-the-moment backup when auditory processing fails.
ANSD requires specialized testing that examines how your ear and brain communicate. Dr. Kushnick’s approach identifies exactly what’s disrupting your signal transmission and determines which treatments offer the best chance of improvement.
Call our Brooklyn, New York, office at 718-250-8520 to learn more, or use our online booking tool to schedule an evaluation that will get to the root of your hearing challenges.
