Objectives The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between sensory impairment (hearing loss only, vision loss only, and dual sensory impairment [DSI]) and depression, loneliness, quality of life, and cognitive performance in older adults. Methods A total of 229 community‐dwelling older adults aged 60 years or older participated in this study. Variables were measured using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS‐15), Revised University of California at Los Angeles Loneliness Scale (R‐UCLA), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE). Results There was an independent association between DSI and quality of life (P < .05) and between DSI and hearing loss alone and cognitive function (P < .05) in older adults. In addition, higher education was associated with better quality of life and cognitive function. Conclusions DSI is a significant factor affecting the quality of life and cognitive function in older adults. Sociodemographic factors such as education play an important role in improving quality of life and cognitive function. Thus, increasing the awareness of this disability is important to ensure that older adults receive the necessary support services and rehabilitation to improve their level of independence.

In spite of extensive research conducted in studying pitch memory processing, knowledge about the functional anatomy of the brain while performing pitch discrimination task is still lacking. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of background noise and tonal frequencies on brain activation during a pitch discrimination task. Thirteen participants were presented with categories of low-and high-frequency tones during an fMRI scan. They listen, recognize and discriminate the target tone with the last tone in a series of four distracting tones. Cortical responses during which the participants engaged with the pitch discrimination task were explored globally and differentially with tonal frequency and background condition as factors. Similar integrative network consisting of bilateral superior temporal gyrus, pre-central gyrus, cerebellum, insula, putamen, inferior parietal lobe and supplementary motor area is established during the four pitch discrimination task conditions. The bilateral A1 and right M1 are effectively activated by noise and action respectively. Background noise increases the participants' performance hence equalizing that in quiet, while participants performed significantly better in discriminating low-frequency tones as compared to high-frequency tones. This study revealed an integrative network that consists of areas responsible for pitch discrimination strategy. The bilateral primary auditory cortex played important roles in increasing participants' pitch discrimination performance in noisy surrounding and in discriminating low frequency category of tones.

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Evidence suggests that cognitive performance deteriorates in noisy backgrounds and the problems are more pronounced in older people due to brain deficits and changes. The present study used functional MRI (fMRI) to investigate the neural correlates of this phenomenon during short-term memory using a forward repeat task performed in quiet (STMQ) and in noise: 5-dB SNR (STMN) on four groups of participants of different ages. The performance of short-term memory tasks was measured behaviourally. No significant difference was found across age groups in STMQ. However, older adults (50–65 year olds) performed relatively poorly on the STMN. fMRI results on the laterality index indicate changes in hemispheric laterality in the superior temporal gyrus (STG), Heschl's gyrus (HG), and cerebellum, and a leftward asymmetry in younger participants which changes to a more rightward asymmetry in older participants. The results also indicate that the onset of the laterality shift varies from one brain region to another. STG and HG show a late shift while the cerebellum shows an earlier shift. The results also reveal that noise influences this shifting. Finally, the results support the hypothesis that functional networks that underlie STG, HG, and cerebellum undergo reorganization to compensate for the neural deficit/cognitive decline.

Despite a vast number of studies that were focused on the roles of superior temporal gyrus (STG) and cerebellum as sensory area, little is known about their involvement in cognitive function such as attention and perception. The present fMRI study aimed to identify this cognitive role from brain activation profile of STG and cerebellum obtained from an arithmetic addition task. Eighteen healthy right hand dominance male adults participated in this study. They were instructed to solve single-digit addition tasks in quiet and noisy background during the fMRI scan. Both the in-quiet and in-noise addition tasks activated the bilateral STG and cerebellum (lobule VI and lobule VII) significantly but differentially. In both quiet and noisy conditions, STG activation is dominant in the left hemisphere while cerebellum showed a right hemisphere dominance. Bilateral STG and cerebellum (lobule VI) activation decreasedin noise, conversely cerebellum (lobule VII) activation increased in noise. These asymmetrical activation indicated hemispheric lateralization and differential behaviors of both brain areas in different environment while performing simple arithmetic addition task.