When Silence
Scientific Knowledge
MC

M. Charles Liberman

Eaton-Peabody Laboratories / Harvard Medical School

Cochlear nerve degeneration, synaptopathy, and 'hidden hearing loss'.

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Papers (4)

Adding insult to injury: cochlear nerve degeneration after "temporary" noise-induced hearing loss.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2009

The seminal finding: a 'temporary' noise-induced threshold shift that fully recovers still leaves permanent, silent damage, acute loss of nerve terminals and delayed degeneration of the cochlear nerve.

Animal study (in vivo)
Mouse

Cochlear neuropathy in human presbycusis: Confocal analysis of hidden hearing loss in post-mortem tissue.

Hearing research · 2015

Human evidence: post-mortem temporal bones from older adults with near-normal hair cell counts still showed cochlear nerve fiber loss, synaptopathy in human aging, not just mice.

Human study (non-randomized / first-in-human)
Human

Cochlear synaptopathy in acquired sensorineural hearing loss: Manifestations and mechanisms.

Hearing research · 2017

Review: well before hair cells die and thresholds rise, noise and aging silently sever the synapses between inner hair cells and the auditory nerve.

ReviewN/A

A National Cohort Study of Tinnitus and Hearing Loss in the Million Veteran Program.

Ear and hearing · 2026

National VA cohort of 267,395 veterans finds tinnitus in 47%, more common with traumatic brain injury, anxiety, or depression, and with earlier/steeper hearing loss than a civilian cohort.

Human study (non-randomized / first-in-human)
Human