Doctors warn noise cancelling headphones may be linked to rise in brain condition

Experts have warned that the new technology could lead to a brain disorder.

As reported by BBC News health reporter Hannah Karpel, several NHS audiology departments in the country have revealed an increase in the number of young people referred to them from GPs with hearing issues - only to find their hearing is normal when tested and it is their ability to process sound that is struggling.

According to the NHS, Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a neurological condition where the brain finds it difficult to understand sounds and spoken words.

While it’s likely that a person with APD will pass a hearing test, they could have difficulty figuring out more specific elements of sound or understand what someone is saying in a noisy room.

This was the case for Sophie, a 25-year-old administration assistant from London, who revealed her diagnosis of ADP to the BBC after meeting with a private audiologist.

Having grown up on a peaceful farm in the countryside, it wasn't until a few years ago when Sophie started university in London that she noticed a change in her hearing - specifically trouble identifying where a sound was coming from.

She rarely attended her university lectures in person, instead opting to watch them online and with subtitles.

"All the words sounded like gibberish when I was in the actual lecture, and I was trying to hear," she told Hannah Karpel.

It affected her social life too and Sophie would leave bars and restaurants early because of the "overwhelming noise".

APD is more common in neurodivergent people, those who have suffered from a brain injury or had a middle-ear infection as a child.

However, more patients with APD are presenting outside of those categories, leaving audiologists to question if external factors, such as noise-cancelling headphones, are contributing.

Claire Benton, who is the vice president of the British Academy of Audiology, said: “You have almost created this false environment by wearing those headphones of only listening to what you want to listen to. You are not having to work at it.”

Speaking to Quartz, academic director of Macquarie University Hearing, David McAlpine, added: "If you have a listening loss, it’s like changing your brain’s encryption.

"Even if you can change what you’re hearing, you may not get back to the brain state that you had before," he added. "It’s not reversible.

"I do think that we’ve let the big tech companies co-opt our listening habits, monetize it, and sell it back to us.

"Their solution to the hearing problem is probably creating a listening problem."

For those experiencing difficulties with sound processing in England, APD care in the NHS is limited.

A UK-wide survey from 2024, distributed by the BAA and ENT UK, the professional body representing ear, nose and throat surgery, found that only 4% of audiologists consider themselves to be well-informed on APD.

And, for those who are 16 years and over, the Royal National ENT and Eastman Hospital is the only NHS provider in England offering a full APD assessment and the waiting list is nine months long.