Neuroanatomical changes associated with age-related hearing loss and listening effort

Abstract

Age-related hearing loss is associated with a decrease in hearing abilities for high frequencies and therefore leads to impairments in understanding speech—in particular, under adverse listening conditions. Growing evidence suggests that age-related hearing loss is related to various neural changes, for instance, affecting auditory and frontal brain regions. How the decreased auditory input and the increased listening effort in daily life are associated with structural changes is less clear, since previous evidence is scarce and mostly involved low sample sizes. Hence, the aim of the current study was to investigate the impact of age-related untreated hearing loss and subjectively rated daily life listening effort on grey matter and white matter changes in a large sample of participants (n = 71). For that aim, we conducted anatomical MRI and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in elderly hard-of-hearing and age-matched normal-hearing participants. Our results showed significantly lower grey matter volume in the middle frontal cortex in hard-of-hearing compared to normal-hearing participants. Further, higher listening effort was associated with lower grey matter volume and cortical thickness in the orbitofrontal cortex and lower grey matter volume in the inferior frontal cortex. No significant relations between hearing abilities or listening effort were obtained for white matter integrity in tracts connecting auditory and prefrontal as well as visual areas. These findings provide evidence that hearing impairment as well as daily life listening effort seems to be associated with grey matter loss in prefrontal brain regions. We further conclude that alterations in cortical thickness seem to be linked to the increased listening effort rather than the hearing loss itself.

Effects of age-related hearing loss and hearing aid experience on sentence processing

“…However, this is mere speculation and the question remains open for further investigation. Complicating this issue, hearing loss has been associated with reduced gray matter volume in the primary auditory cortex 11 , 52 , among other brain volume changes 53 , 54 (although some studies found no effects, see 55 ).…”

Changes in Prefrontal Cortex–Thalamic Circuitry after Acoustic Trauma

“…Indeed, human imaging data have shown structural and functional changes in this cortico-limbic and auditory brain circuitry following hearing impairment. Hearing loss has been shown to be associated with significantly lower grey matter volume in the PFC in individuals with hearing loss compared to normal-hearing individuals [ 25 , 26 ]. Increased functional coupling between the PFC and auditory cortex has been demonstrated in hearing impaired individuals compared to normal hearing controls [ 27 ].…”

Rebuttal to: Neuroanatomical changes associated with age-related hearing loss and listening effort

“…We have read the letter by Xiaoling Yin and Yun Zheng in critique to our research that was published as "Neuroanatomical changes associated with age-related hearing loss and listening effort" (Rosemann and Thiel 2020). We appreciate the concerns of the authors of this letter and hereby take the opportunity to respond to those comments.…”