Listen up: Do you know the 60/60 rule to use your earphones?
Why People Love Loud Music, published on the website of Loop Earplugs, Antwerp-headquartered manufacturers of noise-reducing earphones, writer Samuel De Koning alludes to the ‘sacculus’ as a factor. The organ is part of the balance-regulating vestibular system in our inner ear. “It’s special because it has direct connections to pleasure centres in the brain.
It releases endorphins when stimulated by loud music, so listening to loud music is essentially self-medicating," writes Koning. In a 2015 study conducted by researchers at McGill University, Canada, participants were hooked to an fMRI machine and their brain activity was recorded while listening to a favourite piece of music. “During peak emotional moments in the songs identified by the listeners, dopamine was released in the nucleus accumbens, a structure deep within the older part of our human brain," reports the January 2015 article, Why we love music, in Greater Good magazine.
“Music affects deep emotional centres in the brain," the article quotes Valorie Salimpoor, a neuroscientist and lead researcher of the study. The emotional pull to immersing oneself in loud music can be strong but the resultant damages it can cause to one’s hearing capacity is impossible to ignore. “Loud sounds damage the delicate hair cells in the inner ear, responsible for converting sound into electrical signals.
Over time, this damage can lead to permanent hearing loss, difficulty understanding speech, and social isolation. Additionally, noise-induced hearing loss has been linked to cognitive decline and other health issues," cautions Dr K Susheen Dutt, senior consultant – ENT specialist, Fortis Hospital, Bengaluru. Prolonged headphone use can also lead to symptoms like tinnitus
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