Age-Related Hearing Loss Associations With Changes in Brain Morphology.
Mark A Eckert, Kenneth I Vaden, Judy R Dubno
PMID 31213143WHAT IT FOUND
Over a mean 2.62 years, changes in hearing and auditory cortex morphology did not track together.
Baseline elevated high-frequency hearing was linked to lower auditory cortex gray matter and ventricle expansion, but this study did not show hearing loss caused brain change.
Key findings
01The main longitudinal result was null: changes in hearing measures were not significantly associated with changes in brain morphology.
02At both visits, elevated high-frequency hearing was associated with lower gray matter volume in left auditory cortex regions.
03At the first visit, elevated high-frequency hearing was associated with a faster rate of lateral ventricle volume expansion, and this remained after controlling for age, time between visits, and sex.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was small, with 30 adults selected from a previous study of 49 participants. The age range was broad, from 43.65 to 84.70 years at the first visit. The time between visits varied from 1.26 to 4.97 years. The authors did not know when hearing loss began, so past noise or ototoxic exposures could not be ruled out. Only three participants reported owning a hearing aid, too few to examine hearing aid effects. Tinnitus was self-reported without a standard measure. Some auditory cortex associations were tested without multiple comparison correction. One left auditory cortex association was not significant after controlling for age.
Declared interests
No author conflict-of-interest declaration appears in the supplied text. The article is tagged as NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that hearing loss caused lower auditory cortex gray matter or faster ventricle expansion. The main longitudinal test found no significant association between changes in hearing and changes in brain morphology.