I can't find any specific experiments that address your question directly. But I can present some evidence on related topics.
First, let's look at age-related hearing loss (ARHL), otherwise known as presbycusis. It is, as you might guess, hearing loss that is associated with aging and no other specific cause (i.e. no previously known noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL)). ARHL is complex and likely has many causes. But one hypothesis (of many) is that ARHL is often an accumulation of a lifetime of noise exposures, leading to a hearing loss in old age (Van Eyken et al., 2007).
This leads us to the concept of hidden hearing loss, which occurs when neurological or cellular damage occurs after intense noise exposures, but does not register a permanent hearing loss on typical audiometric tests. This is thought to especially occur after noise exposures that cause a temporary threshold shift (TTS), which you may have experienced after a loud concert (Kujawa & Liberman, 2009). Furthermore, exposure to damaging noise at a young age increases the likelihood and severity of age-related hearing loss (Kujawa & Liberman, 2006).
Taken together, this shows that exposures to damaging noise increases your susceptibility to hearing loss as you age.
But, you might ask, what about sound conditioning and toughening? These paradigms are both used to try and use noise exposures to protect against future noise exposures. However, sound conditioning is the use of low-level, non-damaging noise, either continuously or intermittently, to protect again future acoustic trauma (very intense noise exposure). Toughening is the use of an intermittent noise that causes a TTS. The degree of TTS is often reduced after repeated exposures, sometimes eventually resulting in no measurable TTS at all (Niu & Canlon, 2002).
Recall that there is evidence to suggest that incurring a TTS may cause an increase in susceptibility to NIHL or ARHL, so you may not want to try toughening your cochlea. Sound conditioning, on the other hand, may be a promising way to reduce susceptibility to additional noise exposures, however, it has primarily been tested as a protective method against acoustic trauma, specifically (Harrison et al., 2021).
With this information about cochlear pre-conditioning, there is some evidence to suggest that certain noise exposures can have a protective effect.
Finally, circling back to your original point, the selection of an appropriate noise exposure paradigm for sound conditioning is essential. Choosing too intense a noise exposure as a pre-conditioning agent, is associated with an increased hearing loss after acoustic trauma (Fowler et al., 1995).
So in conclusion, based on the above information, it would be my hypothesis, that someone with hearing loss, is equally susceptible or more susceptible to subsequent hearing losses, compared to someone with normal hearing. Note that, again, I do not have any specific evidence for your exact question.
lowsodiumpolio t1_iurvjr1 wrote
Reply to Does hearing loss affects noise thresholds for future hearing loss? by I_am_Mind_Wanderer
I can't find any specific experiments that address your question directly. But I can present some evidence on related topics.
First, let's look at age-related hearing loss (ARHL), otherwise known as presbycusis. It is, as you might guess, hearing loss that is associated with aging and no other specific cause (i.e. no previously known noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL)). ARHL is complex and likely has many causes. But one hypothesis (of many) is that ARHL is often an accumulation of a lifetime of noise exposures, leading to a hearing loss in old age (Van Eyken et al., 2007).
This leads us to the concept of hidden hearing loss, which occurs when neurological or cellular damage occurs after intense noise exposures, but does not register a permanent hearing loss on typical audiometric tests. This is thought to especially occur after noise exposures that cause a temporary threshold shift (TTS), which you may have experienced after a loud concert (Kujawa & Liberman, 2009). Furthermore, exposure to damaging noise at a young age increases the likelihood and severity of age-related hearing loss (Kujawa & Liberman, 2006).
Taken together, this shows that exposures to damaging noise increases your susceptibility to hearing loss as you age.
But, you might ask, what about sound conditioning and toughening? These paradigms are both used to try and use noise exposures to protect against future noise exposures. However, sound conditioning is the use of low-level, non-damaging noise, either continuously or intermittently, to protect again future acoustic trauma (very intense noise exposure). Toughening is the use of an intermittent noise that causes a TTS. The degree of TTS is often reduced after repeated exposures, sometimes eventually resulting in no measurable TTS at all (Niu & Canlon, 2002).
Recall that there is evidence to suggest that incurring a TTS may cause an increase in susceptibility to NIHL or ARHL, so you may not want to try toughening your cochlea. Sound conditioning, on the other hand, may be a promising way to reduce susceptibility to additional noise exposures, however, it has primarily been tested as a protective method against acoustic trauma, specifically (Harrison et al., 2021).
With this information about cochlear pre-conditioning, there is some evidence to suggest that certain noise exposures can have a protective effect.
Finally, circling back to your original point, the selection of an appropriate noise exposure paradigm for sound conditioning is essential. Choosing too intense a noise exposure as a pre-conditioning agent, is associated with an increased hearing loss after acoustic trauma (Fowler et al., 1995).
So in conclusion, based on the above information, it would be my hypothesis, that someone with hearing loss, is equally susceptible or more susceptible to subsequent hearing losses, compared to someone with normal hearing. Note that, again, I do not have any specific evidence for your exact question.