Hearing loss impairs both sound detection and sound discrimination, from four distinct causes

Evidence

The ability to detect sound and the ability to discriminate between sounds are the two aspects of hearing that can be detrimentally affected by age, disease, trauma or noise-induced hearing loss. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2336

Categorization

• XREF: Frames hearing impairment into two functional axes (detection vs. discrimination), which maps onto the signal-processing distinction between sensitivity and selectivity relevant to earlier chapters on masking and frequency resolution.