Brain Volume Differences Associated With Hearing Impairment in Adults.
Defne Alfandari, Chris Vriend, Dirk J Heslenfeld and 3 others
PMID 29557274WHAT IT FOUND
Adults with hearing impairment had larger gray matter volume in the right angular gyrus than matched normal-hearing adults.
Other speech-related regions showed no differences, but worse hearing was linked to larger volume there.
Key findings
01Hearing-impaired adults had larger gray matter volume in the right angular gyrus than normal-hearing adults.
02In hearing-impaired adults, greater severity of hearing loss was associated with larger gray matter volume in the right angular gyrus.
03No significant gray or white matter volume differences were found in other predefined speech-related brain regions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Small sample, so the finding may be unstable. Cross-sectional design, so it cannot show that hearing impairment caused the brain volume difference. The fusiform white matter result came from an exploratory uncorrected whole-brain analysis and could be a false positive. The hearing-impaired group had mixed causes of hearing loss, which may blur the relationship between hearing loss and brain volume. Differences were not found in several expected speech-related regions, including primary auditory areas, so the overall pattern was limited.
Declared interests
Funded by a Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek VENI grant. The article does not report author conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that hearing impairment causes brain volume changes. This cross-sectional study only reports an association, and the fusiform white matter finding was exploratory and uncorrected.