Effects of aging and adult-onset hearing loss on cortical auditory regions

Cardin, Velia (2016) Effects of aging and adult-onset hearing loss on cortical auditory regions. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 10. ISSN 1662-4548

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Abstract

Hearing loss is a common feature in human aging. It has been argued that dysfunctions in central processing are important contributing factors to hearing loss during older age. Aging also has well documented consequences for neural structure and function, but it is not clear how these effects interact with those that arise as a consequence of hearing loss. This paper reviews the effects of aging and adult-onset hearing loss in the structure and function of cortical auditory regions. The evidence reviewed suggests that aging and hearing loss result in atrophy of cortical auditory regions and stronger engagement of networks involved in the detection of salient events, adaptive control and re-allocation of attention. These cortical mechanisms are engaged during listening in effortful conditions in normal hearing individuals. Therefore, as a consequence of aging and hearing loss, all listening becomes effortful and cognitive load is constantly high, reducing the amount of available cognitive resources. This constant effortful listening and reduced cognitive spare capacity could be what accelerates cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2016 Cardin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	hearing loss,aging (aging),aging and cognitive function,cognitive decline,auditory cortex,humans
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Developmental Science
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	15 Nov 2016 11:00
Last Modified:	04 Aug 2023 10:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/61335
DOI:	10.3389/fnins.2016.00199

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