Associations Between Measures of Auditory Function and Brief Assessments of Cognition.
Larry E Humes
PMID 32976027WHAT IT FOUND
In older adults, MoCA tracked more cognitive domains than MMSE or AQT.
Poor ability to sequence sounds was linked to MoCA failure. Hearing loss rarely predicted cognition, and the paper does not show that hearing aids improve cognitive scores.
Key findings
01The MoCA was associated with processing speed, verbal comprehension, and working memory, while the MMSE was not associated with processing speed.
02At follow-up, poorer auditory temporal ordering was the only significant predictor of failing the MoCA.
03Hearing loss itself seldom emerged as a significant explanatory factor for cognitive function in this study.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
This was an observational follow-up study, so it shows associations, not that hearing loss or temporal ordering causes cognitive decline. The analyzed sample was much smaller than the original baseline cohort, and returnees differed from nonreturnees on some baseline auditory and cognitive measures and on sex distribution. The test-retest interval varied, and the paper treated interval as a covariate rather than using a fixed follow-up period. There was no clinical diagnosis of cognitive impairment, so pass/fail disagreements between screens could not be resolved. Very few participants failed the MMSE or AQT, limiting how well those screens could separate people in this sample. Cognitive tests used auditory instructions and stimuli, and hearing loss could still influence performance despite hearing aids and available assistive devices. Many analyses were run, and hearing-loss effects were small, so the study may have been too small to detect them reliably.
Declared interests
Funding was provided in part by National Institute on Aging grant R01 AG008293, awarded to the author through Indiana University. No other conflicts of interest are reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the MoCA and temporal ordering findings as proof that hearing aids or auditory training improve cognition. The study was observational and tested no intervention.