Cochlear Mechanisms in Noise Induced Hearing Loss

AbstractOne of the most common causes of hearing loss depends on noise overexposure. Noise is a stress factor that has auditory, psychological and physiological effects. Noise causes overproduction of stress hormones, sleep disturbances and impairment of cellular immunity. The effect of noise that inflicts organic damage on the human hearing system varies depending on intensity, and duration of the noise and individual susceptibility. There are several anatomical and physiologic abnormalities caused by noise overexposure. These abnormalities vary from the minimal loss of metabolic activities of hair cells and stiffness of stereocilia to total loss of organ of corti and the auditory nerve. The opportunity to treat and prevent noise induced hearing loss may increase with the clarification of the mechanism of cochlear damage in noise. Understanding of these mechanisms is important for development of new agents for treatment or prevention of noise induced hearing loss. In this report, we reviewed the pathological changes of the cochlea in noise induced hearing loss in the light of the literature. Keywords: Hearing loss, noise-induced cochlea, mechanism of action