Grant: Project Grant

With aging, hearing loss becomes more common and can make important everyday activities more challenging. Research has demonstrated a 3-fold elevation in falls risk for older adults with hearing loss, thus understanding the relationship between hearing loss and mobility is an important health research objective. Our goal is to examine the benefits of cognitive enrichment (through computerized cognitive training, exercise training) in a range of real-world mobility tasks, such as listening to a speaker while driving, or remembering a series of landmarks while walking. Most of the existing training studies of this sort have not examined hearing loss, nor have they examined the type of everyday tasks that older adults report as challenging in their lives. In two parallel training studies (Aim 1), we aim to apply our training protocols to older adults with good hearing and older adults with hearing impairment. We will also employ wearable neuroimaging methods to determine if the training can successfully reduce the mental effort that is experienced during complex driving and walking activities, commensurate with improved performance in these activities (Aim 2). Finally, we will pair the cognitive training program with an existing community exercise program to test the potential added benefits and uptake of cognitive training in a community setting (Aim 3). This research is important in expanding the type of treatment offered to older adults with hearing loss, in contrast to usual care (i.e., hearing aid fitting, listening practice). Improvements to everyday mobility may subsequently help older adults with hearing loss maintain their social and physical activities for longer.