HoldsUp

Huberman Lab · 2025-10-13 · Andrew Huberman (host), Konstantina Stankovic

Protect & Improve Your Hearing & Brain Health | Dr. Konstantina Stankovic

90 research-tied claims examined: 4 contradicted 4 overstated 5 context 71 supported 6 unverified

5 Needs context
0:28:14Konstantina Stankovicneeds contextlow

Phonophobia is more prevalent in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder or related personality traits.

"Now, to have a real fear of sound, phonophobia, that's not common, and it's usually linked with some underlying mental health condition. It's more common in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder or personality trait and other conditions." (said at 0:28:14)

Phonophobia (literally a specific phobia or fear of sound) is classified as a distinct sound hypersensitivity phenotype alongside misophonia (aversion to specific trigger sounds) and hyperacusis (perceived loudness/pain intolerance). In clinical psychiatric and audiological literature, sound hypersensitivities—particularly misophonia and phonophobia—are frequently linked to mental health conditions and show significant co-occurrence with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and obsessive-compulsive personality traits/disorder (OCPD). For instance, observational studies of clinical cohorts with sound intolerance have reported comorbid obsessive-compulsive personality disorder traits in approximately 26% of patients, as well as significant positive correlations between sound hypersensitivity severity and OCD symptoms. However, much of the empirical literature on OCD/OCPD comorbidity focuses primarily on misophonia cohorts or general sound hypersensitivity syndromes rather than isolated phonophobia, and available data derive primarily from observational cross-sectional studies.

0:49:17Konstantina Stankovicneeds contextmoderate

Individuals with autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis or celiac disease have an increased risk of hearing loss due to inner ear injury and fixation of middle ear ossicular joints.

"Then there is immunologic hearing loss, when there is no infection, but it's an inflammation, such as people with celiac disease or rheumatoid arthritis, they may have higher predisposition to developing hearing loss. Not only because the little tiny joints in the middle ear become fixed and don't vibrate as well, but also because the inner ear is injured." (said at 0:49:17)

Autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are well-established risk factors for hearing loss, primarily sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) stemming from inner ear/cochlear damage and vasculitis. Meta-analyses confirm a 2- to 3-fold higher risk of SNHL in patients with RA compared to healthy controls. While the middle ear ossicles contain synovial diarthrodial joints (the incudomalleolar and incudostapedial joints) that can undergo arthritic changes and altered mechanics in RA (demonstrated in animal models and tympanometry studies), human meta-analyses show that conductive hearing loss from ossicular joint fixation is relatively uncommon compared to inner ear injury. Additionally, the evidence linking celiac disease to hearing loss is preliminary and primarily based on small observational studies and case series.

1:30:22Andrew Huberman (host)needs contextmoderate

A study published in Nature Neuroscience demonstrated that people can answer simple math problems during REM sleep.

"there's this wild study published a couple years ago in Nature Neuroscience that shows that people can actually answer simple math problems in their sleep, in REM sleep, by—because you're paralyzed in REM sleep, they have to answer a different way." (said at 1:30:22)

The core scientific finding is accurate, but the study was published in Current Biology (Konkoly et al., 2021), not Nature Neuroscience. In that study, researchers across four independent laboratories demonstrated two-way communication with individuals in polysomnographically verified lucid REM sleep. Dreamers perceived external auditory or visual math problems and questions and accurately responded in real time using pre-agreed physiological signals (such as left-right eye movements or facial muscle contractions) to bypass REM muscle atonia.

  • supports: Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep. (Current biology : CB 2021) · cited 131x in the literature
    "Here we show that individuals who are asleep and in the midst of a lucid dream (aware of the fact that they are currently dreaming) can perceive questions from an experimenter and provide answers using electrophysiological signals. We implemented our procedures for two-way communication during polysomnographically verified rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep in 36 individuals... During REM sleep, these individuals exhibited various capabilities, including performing veridical perceptual analysis of novel information, maintaining information in working memory, computing simple answers, and expressing volitional replies. Their responses included distinctive eye movements and selective facial muscle contractions, constituting correctly answered questions on 29 occasions across 6 of the individuals tested." (abstract, results, passage verified)
    pubmedfull study (doi)
1:40:30Konstantina Stankovicneeds contextlow

Low-frequency emissions or vibrations from windmills can stimulate the human vestibular system.

"there are some data showing that people who live close to windmills have described some disturbances that they initially couldn't really explain. And then it turns out that that can stimulate the vestibular system" (said at 1:40:30)

Case reports and small cohort studies have documented audiovestibular complaints (such as dizziness, nausea, and vertigo, often referred to as 'wind turbine syndrome') among residents living near wind farms. Research has explored the biological plausibility of low-frequency infrasound stimulating the human vestibular system (otolith organs and semicircular canals); however, the acoustic intensities generated by typical wind turbines are generally below the threshold required to activate an intact, healthy human vestibular system, though stimulation may occur at higher sound pressure levels or in individuals with pre-existing inner-ear conditions (such as superior semicircular canal dehiscence). Evidence supporting direct vestibular activation at ambient environmental levels remains preliminary and largely based on uncontrolled case series and acoustic modeling.

1:59:47Konstantina Stankovicneeds contextlow

Certain tribes in Africa not exposed to modern noise environments maintain normal hearing thresholds into their 80s.

"There are tribes in Africa where they're not exposed to modern loud environments and they have normal hearing even into their 80s." (said at 1:59:47)

The claim refers to the landmark 1962 epidemiological studies by Samuel Rosen and colleagues investigating the Mabaan tribe in Sudan (PMID 13974856). In this isolated, non-industrialized society with very low background noise levels, elderly individuals (aged 70–80+) demonstrated substantially superior hearing acuity and significantly lower thresholds at high frequencies compared to age-matched populations from industrialized countries (such as the US and Germany). However, qualification is needed: while their hearing was exceptionally well-preserved compared to industrialized cohorts, some degree of biological age-related high-frequency loss still occurred, and the original authors and later reviews emphasized that systemic factors—including low blood pressure, low blood cholesterol, and the virtual absence of cardiovascular disease—likely contributed alongside the lack of acoustic trauma.

Unverified means no publication matching the claim was located; it does not prove the claim false. Spotted an error? See the corrections policy - disputes from the people quoted are prioritized.