Study Findings
In the November 21, 2023 problem of the Journal of Alzheimers Disease, scientists reported that individuals registered in this observational research study who had hearing problems displayed microstructural differences in the auditory locations of the temporal lobe and in locations of the frontal cortex included with speech and language processing, as well as locations included with executive function.
” These outcomes suggest that hearing impairment may lead to modifications in brain locations connected to processing of sounds, in addition to in locations of the brain that are related to attention. The extra effort involved with trying to understand sounds may produce changes in the brain that lead to increased risk of dementia,” said principal detective Linda K. McEvoy, Ph.D., UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science teacher emeritus and senior investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute.
Preventive Measures and Study Methodology
” If so, interventions that help decrease the cognitive effort needed to understand speech– such as using subtitles on tv and movies, live captioning or speech-to-text apps, hearing aids, and checking out with people in peaceful environments rather of loud areas– could be essential for securing the brain and minimize the risk of dementia.”
McEvoy developed and led the study while at UC San Diego, in partnership with Reas and UC San Diego School of Medicine investigators who collected information from the Rancho Bernardo Study of Health Aging, a longitudinal mate research study of citizens of the Rancho Bernardo suburb in San Diego that introduced in 1972. For this analysis, 130 study individuals went through hearing threshold tests in research study clinic visits in between 2003 and 2005 and consequently had MRI scans in between 2014 and 2016.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The outcomes of the research study reveal that hearing problems is associated with regionally specific brain changes that might take place due to sensory deprivation and to the increased effort required to understand auditory processing stimulations.
” The findings emphasize the importance of protecting ones hearing by preventing extended direct exposure to loud noises, wearing hearing protection when using loud tools and lowering making use of ototoxic medications,” said co-author Emilie T. Reas, Ph.D., assistant teacher at the UC San Diego School of Medicine.
Recommendation: “Elevated Pure Tone Thresholds Are Associated with Altered Microstructure in Cortical Areas Related to Auditory Processing and Attentional Allocation” by Linda K. McEvoy, Jaclyn Bergstrom, Donald J. Hagler Jr, David Wing and Emilie T. Reas, 21 November 2023, Journal of Alzheimers Disease.DOI: 10.3233/ JAD-230767.
Co-authors include: Jaclyn Bergstrom, Donald J. Hagler Jr, David Wing, and Emilie T. Reas, all of UC San Diego.
This research was funded, in part, by the National Institute on Aging (R00AG057797, R01AG077202, R01AA021187) and the American Federation for Aging Research/McKnight Foundation (311122-00001). Data collection for the Rancho Bernardo Study of Healthy Aging was supplied mainly by the National Institutes of Health (HV012160, AA021187, AG028507, AG007181, DK31801, HL034591, HS06726, HL089622). Archiving and sharing of Rancho Bernardo research study information was supported by the National Institute on Aging (AG054067).
Disclosures: Donald J. Hagler Jr is listed as an inventor on United States Patent 9,568,580, 2017, “Identifying white matter fiber systems using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).” Other authors report no disputes of interest.
Scientists found that hearing loss in older adults is linked to brain modifications in areas connected to sound processing and executive functions, possibly increasing the risk of dementia. Protective measures such as hearing aids and preventing loud noises are suggested to reduce this risk.
Increased dementia danger connected with hearing impairment might originate from countervailing brain changes.
Hearing loss impacts more than 60 percent of grownups aged 70 and older in the United States and is understood to be related to an increased danger of dementia. The factor for this association is not fully understood.
Research on Hearing Impairment and Brain Changes
To better comprehend the connection, a group of University of California San Diego and Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute scientists utilized hearing tests and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to figure out whether hearing problems is connected with differences in specific brain regions.