Grant: Project Grant

Hearing loss and cognitive decline are both common features of aging. Current estimates suggest that both dementia and age-related hearing loss (ARHL) will be among the top 10 causes of total disability in high-income countries within the next fifteen years. Recent evidence also suggests that both these age-related health burdens might be intrinsically linked, and that age-related hearing loss might significantly contribute to the subsequent cognitive decline. The poor understanding of how both features of aging are interrelated are a definite cause for global health and economic concern. Fortunately, recent evidence suggests that addressing the hearing loss through hearing aid use could potentially attenuate cognitive decline. However, the exact nature of the relationship between the quality of hearing inputs and cognitive decline, as well as their underlying neurobiological mechanisms, remain poorly understood. The primary goal of this proposal, therefore, is to characterize the relationship between ARHL, cognitive abilities and quality of life. This will be examined via a two-pronged approach: 1) by investigating the effects of hearing augmentation (with hearing aids) on measures of cognitive ability and on brain activation patterns measured by magnetoencephalography in AHRL individuals, and 2) by comparing ARHL individuals with matched normal-hearing individuals on these same cognitive and neuroimaging metrics.