At first glance, you may not think there’s a connection between your ability to hear and your ability to balance: one concerns a sense, the other concerns bodily movement. However, hearing and balance are intrinsically linked, and it’s an interesting connection to examine. Let’s discuss it in more depth.
Hearing and Spatial Awareness
The first way hearing and balance interact is through their cooperation in creating our sense of spatial awareness. Spatial awareness means your ability to perceive and understand your body’s position in relation to your environment. Your ability to hear plays a large part in spatial awareness. Your brain will calibrate how far away something is from you based on the volume, pitch and echo of the noise it makes, and can pinpoint what direction the noise is coming from.
If you struggle with spatial awareness for any reason, your balance can suffer. You may be startled easily and be knocked over, or stand at an angle when you believe you’re standing up straight. Hearing loss is one reason why you might have difficulty maintaining spatial awareness. Studies have also found that there’s a significant association between hearing loss and uneven gait or swaying while standing up.
The Inner Ear
The second way that balance and hearing interact is also the biggest: proximity. Both our auditory (hearing) system and our vestibular (balance) system reside in the inner ear. They are physically connected and share a nerve pathway to the brain, meaning that what affects one system will likely affect the other.
In the inner ear is an organ called the cochlea, and it is the main hearing organ. The cochlea takes sound waves, encodes them and transmits them to the brain. Damage to the cochlea will lead to hearing loss. Attached to the cochlea is the main group of balance organs, which comprises two otolith organs and three semicircular canals. Put together, the cochlea, otolith organs and three semicircular canals resemble a snail.
When Both Balance and Hearing Are Affected
When something damages the cochlea, the balance organs and/or the auditory pathway they share, it can cause both hearing loss and balance issues. Conditions that can do this include:
- Inner ear infections, particularly labyrinthitis
- Diseases such as cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus or meningitis
- Exposure to loud noise
- Aging
- Head trauma or injury
- Neck trauma or injury
- Acoustic neuroma (benign tumors on the auditory nerve)
- Meniere’s disease
- Some autoimmune disorders that attack healthy inner ear tissue or the shared nerve pathway
- Ototoxic medications
Visit an Audiologist
Because the practice of audiology specializes in the inner ear, audiologists tend to be experts in both hearing and balance, as well as the issues that pertain to them. If you’re having issues with your hearing, balance or both, contact Carolina Ear Nose & Throat – Sinus and Allergy Center today.