Effects of hidden hearing loss on the representation of speech-in-noise in the gerbil auditory midbrain

Increasing evidence indicates that noise exposure selectively damages high-threshold auditory nerve fibres, in the absence of damage to sensory hair cells. This “hidden hearing loss (HHL)"—undetected by conventional tests such as audiometry—is suggested to account for undiagnosed difficulties processing speech in background noise. Here, we demonstrate in the midbrain of gerbils exposed to a single, controlled noise insult, and in human...