Graduate adds to understanding of hearing loss

Thu Sep 29 2016 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Graduate adds to understanding of hearing loss

29 September 2016

Seonaigh Scott

When Seonaigh Scott was choosing a field in which to specialise, the Masters of Audiology ticked all the right boxes.

“I have always been fascinated by how we perceive and process the world around us,” Seonaigh, from Oamaru, says.

“When I add to that the fact that growing up my dad had hearing loss and severe tinnitus, and my desire to work in an industry where I was able to directly work with people, then the Master of Audiology course seemed to be a perfect fit.”

Seonaigh, 24, graduated with First Class Honours from the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences earlier this week.

Her research completed in her final year has also added to our understanding of how hearing loss interacts with vision.

Her study confirmed individuals who suffered hearing loss also experience less effect of visual crowding, the inability to recognise objects in a cluttered visual scene. Not much is known about the interaction between the two.

“When an individual suffers severe to profound hearing loss, evidence of a peripheral advantage in visual attention is well-established,” Seonaigh says.

“My results showed those with severe to profound hearing loss are relieved from peripheral visual crowding (compared to those with normal hearing). This provides support for an explanation of the phenomenon known as the sensory compensation model, in which a deficit in one sensory modality results in increased functioning in the remaining modalities.”

Seonaigh has already put her degree into practice working for Bay Audiology Mount Maunganui as a provisional audiologist. She is also working toward her Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) and becoming a full member of the New Zealand Audiological Society.