Noise-canceling headphones may be linked to brain condition

Noise-canceling headphones may be linked to brain condition

The UK’s National Health Society has found that noise-canceling headphones may be causing auditory processing disorders in young people. Dr. Akshay Syal explains how the noise-canceling headphones may affect the brain.  
For more context and news coverage of the most important stories of our day, click here: https://www.nbcnews.com

» Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC
» Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews

NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows.

Connect with NBC News Online!
NBC News App: https://apps.nbcnews.com/mobile
Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/breaking-news-signup?cid=sm_npd_nn_yt_bn-clip_190621
Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC
Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC
Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC
Follow NBC News on Instagram: http://nbcnews.to/InstaNBC

#braindisorder #noisecancelingheadphones #headphones

50 Comments

  1. How do we know that NC headphones are causing an increase in APD vs people with APD are much more likely to use NC headphones to deal with their processing issues?

    Also, yes we know that earphones and headphones affect sound localization abilities because they disrupt localization cues. This is temporary and resolves after earphones and headphones are removed. Has anyone actually studied the longterm effects of NC earphones and headphones on sound localization abilities when those devices are removed?

  2. How odd, being completely deaf to the world around you by choosing not to hear it causes confusion? Idiocracy is reality.

  3. That was a waste of 3 minutes. I gained no useful information. If you’re going to report on something, put actual good information in. -_-

  4. This couldve been a 10 second short saying noise cancelling earbuds/headphones can hurt your ability to know where a sound is coming from.

  5. You know what? I came here to learn something about brain issues caused by headphones. And guess what? I didn’t! 🤬

  6. Okay: You choose.

    Damage Eardrums? Or a different perspective of how we hear sound?

    Using ANC is basically the same as being in a room to yourself with music. If you want your child to be social. Just have them take brakes.

  7. If extrovert can learn to mind thier own business and shut thier mouth instead of barking any any time any where we wouldn’t need to use them

  8. Word Salad… Got it.

    In the earlier years of life (pre-25) the brain is still developing and learning critical functions. So, these noise cancelling features can prevent the brain from NATURALLY learning how to drown out or ignore certain sounds or distractions. The older a person is, the more they’ve already become accustomed to tuning these things out. The younger the individual pre-25, then the higher of a risk to the brain not naturally waking up to what it needs to do. The real problem, and question, lies in IF this hinderance can cause a chain reaction to other crucial brain activities not developing as they should.

  9. That’s the media machine hard at work trying to avert any fallout for the big tech companies helping prop up the economy. Don’t forget these little white things cause cancer, but hey, I’m not gonna stop using them because they help me feel less stressed while doctors tell me all the conditions I’m ignoring.

  10. The only condition I’ve seen it causes is “Stupidity”. Especially passengers in airplanes when they refuse to take them off to ask the crew for a drink and when they are asked something they go “What, what, what?” Or when they see the beverage cart approaching their row and you try to get their attention but they can’t hear you so you move on and then they come to the back all offended because they say you slipped them. Yep. That’s the stupidity I’m talking about. It makes them almost socially inept.

  11. I tried noise canceling headphones for the first time recently. Wore them for about minute. Didn’t feel good the entire rest of the day. Will never wear them again.

  12. For those looking for more information on this, the BBC has an article from a few days ago.

    Go to your search engine of choice (Google, Bing, etc) and type in (or copy and paste) "Are noise-cancelling headphones to blame for young people’s hearing problems?" and your first (or one of several) should be a link to the BBC article.

    I’ll first add that to anybody using headphones, please keep your volume low to protect your hearing. Currently, when you lose it, you lose it for life, and you often will not notice until it has degraded quite a bit or when others ask. One day this may be reverse. If you know those in your life that are older and speak louder than usual, have their TV turned up loudly, and cannot hear well, that is what others will experience from you when you have significant hearing loss.

    Something that is odd is when I have noise canceling earbuds and have it turned down to the minimum volume, it can seem to "get louder" over time as my ear adjust to it. If you experience that look for equalizer settings in your audio application to adjust the volume to help out.

    One of the concerns in the article is that by using noise canceling headphones early in life up through young teenage years, the brain may not properly learn how to process and filter everyday noises and may make it harder to understand those they are talking with as it might muffle conversation. An area that is looked at is how teens prefer to have subtitles on more than not when watching something. I suspect that not great audio mixing factors a lot into this.

    I’ll add that with my own experience in using them extensively much more to cancel out noise to focus rather than play music I am used to more quiet so can be overwhelmed more by loud noises and harder to understand others in those situations. When I first used them it felt uncomfortable especially without sound since noise canceling headphones take in the sounds around you, invert the sound waves, and play them back. It can make for an uncomfortable "full" feeling in your ears.

  13. It would be helpful to explain how noise cancelling headphones work vs. regular headphones. Do regular headphones you listen to music through cause the same issues?

  14. Wow the comments are full of a bunch of people that can’t understand anything. That’s how Trump won, everyone is really becoming dumber. 🤦

  15. Plus, it’s a dangerous world. You need to hear what’s happening around you in public .That’s why I don’t use headphones anymore like 5 years ago I stopped 😆.

  16. I’ve had auditory processing disorder my whole life. Noise cancelling headphones allow me to exist in public comfortably where I haven’t been able to before. Y’all very obviously have the wrong cause and effect here.

  17. Last time watching anything from NBC after your obviously racist firings. I do not believe anything you have to say. Period. And I know damned well I don’t have to announce I am leaving. If you don’t like it, too bad.

  18. I bought Bose NC headphones because i have a hard time concentrating with a lot of noise going on around me. But i find that i then also become anxious if i cannot hear the ambient noise around me. Cant win i guess. Wish i lived in a remote forest where the only noise were the birds.

  19. This didn’t address the wifi issue that is being transmitted between the ears, ie, through the brain. Probably the issue.

  20. We do know that our brains do some mental gymnastics to make sound and vision sync up to our perceptions. So, I can kinda see how making our in-built systems try to work differently in that regard. Also, many of us already have issues blocking distracting noises But, for most people the skill of having their brain block out a lot of noise so they can focus their hearing. If it turns out that noise-cancelling tech reduces the brain’s talent for focused hearing we’re going to end up with a lot more people who can’t selectively block out sound in order to focus on the sounds they want to hear. It’s definitely a tech feature that enhances enjoyment of your custom audio, whether it’s music, books, podcasts etc …. but, may be even more important to not allow it to cause you to lose crucial audio filtering your brain needs to do to help with communication and warning sounds you need to have stand out from the background for your safety.
    It’s just a thought. Have a great day.!
    *Cheers

Leave a Reply to @MelissaLangston-r9q Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.


*