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Hearing Loss Linked to Accelerated Brain Tissue Loss...
Release Date: January 22, 2014
Although the brain becomes smaller with age, the shrinkage seems to be fast-tracked in older adults with hearing loss, according to the results of a study by researchers from Johns Hopkins and the National Institute on Aging. The findings add to a growing list of health consequences associated with hearing loss, including increased risk of dementia, falls, hospitalizations, and diminished physical and mental health overall.
snip
Previous research from other studies had linked hearing loss with marked differences in brain structure compared to those with normal hearing, both in humans and animals. In particular, structures that process information from sound tended to be smaller in size in people and animals with impaired hearing. Lin, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University schools of medicine and public health, says it was unknown, however, whether these brain structural differences occurred before or after hearing loss.
snip
After analyzing their MRIs over the following years, Lin and his colleagues, reporting in an upcoming issue of Neuroimage, say those participants whose hearing was already impaired at the start of the sub-study had accelerated rates of brain atrophy compared to those with normal hearing. Overall, the scientists report, those with impaired hearing lost more than an additional cubic centimeter of brain tissue each year compared with those with normal hearing. Those with impaired hearing also had significantly more shrinkage in particular regions, including the superior, middle and inferior temporal gyri, brain structures responsible for processing sound and speech.
That structures responsible for sound and speech are affected in those with hearing loss wasn't a surprise, says Lin - shrinkage in those areas might simply be a consequence of an "impoverished" auditory cortex, which could become atrophied from lack of stimulation. However, he adds, these structures don't work in isolation, and their responsibilities don't end at sorting out sounds and language. The middle and inferior temporal gyri, for example, also play roles in memory and sensory integration and have been shown to be involved in the early stages of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.
snip
The study also gives some urgency to treating hearing loss rather than ignoring it. "If you want to address hearing loss well," Lin says, "you want to do it sooner rather than later. If hearing loss is potentially contributing to these differences we're seeing on MRI, you want to treat it before these brain structural changes take place."
More: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/hearing_loss_linked_to_accelerated_brain_tissue_loss_
Although the brain becomes smaller with age, the shrinkage seems to be fast-tracked in older adults with hearing loss, according to the results of a study by researchers from Johns Hopkins and the National Institute on Aging. The findings add to a growing list of health consequences associated with hearing loss, including increased risk of dementia, falls, hospitalizations, and diminished physical and mental health overall.
snip
Previous research from other studies had linked hearing loss with marked differences in brain structure compared to those with normal hearing, both in humans and animals. In particular, structures that process information from sound tended to be smaller in size in people and animals with impaired hearing. Lin, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University schools of medicine and public health, says it was unknown, however, whether these brain structural differences occurred before or after hearing loss.
snip
After analyzing their MRIs over the following years, Lin and his colleagues, reporting in an upcoming issue of Neuroimage, say those participants whose hearing was already impaired at the start of the sub-study had accelerated rates of brain atrophy compared to those with normal hearing. Overall, the scientists report, those with impaired hearing lost more than an additional cubic centimeter of brain tissue each year compared with those with normal hearing. Those with impaired hearing also had significantly more shrinkage in particular regions, including the superior, middle and inferior temporal gyri, brain structures responsible for processing sound and speech.
That structures responsible for sound and speech are affected in those with hearing loss wasn't a surprise, says Lin - shrinkage in those areas might simply be a consequence of an "impoverished" auditory cortex, which could become atrophied from lack of stimulation. However, he adds, these structures don't work in isolation, and their responsibilities don't end at sorting out sounds and language. The middle and inferior temporal gyri, for example, also play roles in memory and sensory integration and have been shown to be involved in the early stages of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.
snip
The study also gives some urgency to treating hearing loss rather than ignoring it. "If you want to address hearing loss well," Lin says, "you want to do it sooner rather than later. If hearing loss is potentially contributing to these differences we're seeing on MRI, you want to treat it before these brain structural changes take place."
More: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/hearing_loss_linked_to_accelerated_brain_tissue_loss_
According to this study, hearing as related to brain tissue is a use it or lose it proposition. Hearing aids help to stop and possibly reverse the brain loss process.
Time is of the essence in choosing to correct hearing loss. Don't drag your feet on this important life decision...
Get hearing aids if you think you need them.
TYY