Is there any legitimate reason that standard audiograms administered around the U.S. (and apparently in many countries around the world) only run until 8 khz? This has definitely come up many times on this site, but I haven't seen a thread dedicated to it and I wanted to discuss it.
There have absolutely been many, many brilliant people who have worked to bring medical science to where it is today, and that must include the field of audiology. On the other hand, I think most would agree that there is tons of BS in medicine due to doctors' apathy, pharma lobbying and common lack of a true free market. And of course there must ultimately be a financial motivation for all but the truly altruistic to do anything at all. Finally, in the grand scheme of things modern medicine is really very young.
So my question is, why are audiograms so apparently primitive? Is medical science up to par here, or is it simply not? If not, then why? It doesn't seem that complicated!
I am absolutely only a layman but it strikes me as beyond absurd to think that playing forty or so percent of the total human hearing range measures the entire human auditory system. I mean, a five year old could tell you that if the average human hearing ranges until 16-20 khz, only measuring up to 8 khz is only testing half the system!! It's like 2 + 2 = 4! Perhaps tests for synaptic "hidden" hearing loss (ugh I hate this whole nomenclature) have not yet been developed, but at least the standard simple audiogram could go until 20 khz, or at the very least 16 khz?? So this is the question: what is the real reason that the audiogram is generally only given until 8 khz? Does anyone here know?
There have absolutely been many, many brilliant people who have worked to bring medical science to where it is today, and that must include the field of audiology. On the other hand, I think most would agree that there is tons of BS in medicine due to doctors' apathy, pharma lobbying and common lack of a true free market. And of course there must ultimately be a financial motivation for all but the truly altruistic to do anything at all. Finally, in the grand scheme of things modern medicine is really very young.
So my question is, why are audiograms so apparently primitive? Is medical science up to par here, or is it simply not? If not, then why? It doesn't seem that complicated!
I am absolutely only a layman but it strikes me as beyond absurd to think that playing forty or so percent of the total human hearing range measures the entire human auditory system. I mean, a five year old could tell you that if the average human hearing ranges until 16-20 khz, only measuring up to 8 khz is only testing half the system!! It's like 2 + 2 = 4! Perhaps tests for synaptic "hidden" hearing loss (ugh I hate this whole nomenclature) have not yet been developed, but at least the standard simple audiogram could go until 20 khz, or at the very least 16 khz?? So this is the question: what is the real reason that the audiogram is generally only given until 8 khz? Does anyone here know?