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Few studies have investigated the neuropsychological profile of Hearing Loss (HL) subjects and the effects of hearing-aid on cognitive decline. We investigated the neuropsychological profile of HL patients at baseline and compared the neuropsychological profiles of patients with and without hearing-aid at 6 month. Fifty-six HL patients and 40 healthy subjects (HC) underwent neuropsychological and behavioral examination and were compared at baseline. Changes at follow-up were compared between HL patients with (N = 25) and without (N = 31) hearing-aids. At baseline, significant differences between HL and HC were found in MOCA test, Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) and SF-36. Among mild-HL patients, patients with hearing-aid significantly improved on the Clock Drawing Test (CDT) as compared to patients without hearing-aid. Our findings indicate that hearing loss is associated with both a reduced efficiency of the global cognitive state and a worse quality of life as compared to HC, supporting the association between HL and cognitive impairment. Moreover, only patients with mild-HL shows some cognitive improvement after using hearing-aid, suggesting that rehabilitative strategies may be more effective to delay cognitive decline in such patients. However, we cannot exclude that hearing-aids may affect cognitive decline in more severe-HL, but a longer follow-up is needed.

Age‐related hearing loss (HL) can be related to brain dysfunction or structural damage and may result in cerebral metabolic/perfusion abnormalities. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows investigating noninvasively brain perfusion changes. Pseudocontinuous ASL and T1‐weighted MRI (at 3 T) and neuropsychological testing (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) were performed in 31 HL (age range = 47–77 years, mean age ± SD = 63.4 ± 8.4 years, pure‐tone average [PTA] HL > 50 dB) and 28 normal hearing (NH; age range = 48–78 years, mean age ± SD = 59.7 ± 7.4 years) subjects. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) and gray matter volume (GMV) were analyzed in the cortical volume to assess perfusion and structural group differences. Two HL subjects showing cognitive impairment were excluded from group comparisons. No significant differences in either global or local atrophy were detected between groups but the HL group exhibited significant regional effects of reduced perfusion within the bilateral primary auditory cortex, with maximal CBF difference (−17.2%) in the right lateral Heschl's gyrus. For the whole sample of HL and NH subjects (n = 59 = 31 HL + 28 NH), the regional CBF was correlated positively to the regional GMV (p = 0.020). In HL subjects (n = 31), the regional CBF was correlated negatively to the audiogram steepness (frequency range: 2–4 kHz, right ear: p = 0.022, left ear: p = 0.015). The observed cortical pattern of perfusion reduction suggests that neuronal metabolism can be related to HL before the recognition of brain structural damage. This also illustrates the potential of ASL‐MRI to contribute early functional markers of reduced central processing associated with HL.

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