Dataset Information

Elevated Pure Tone Thresholds Are Associated with Altered Microstructure in Cortical Areas Related to Auditory Processing and Attentional Allocation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Hearing loss is associated with cognitive decline and increased risk for Alzheimer's disease, but the basis of this association is not understood.

Objective

To determine whether hearing impairment is associated with advanced brain aging or altered microstructure in areas involved with auditory and cognitive processing.

Methods

130 participants, (mean 76.4±7.3 years; 65% women) of the Rancho Bernardo Study of Healthy Aging had a screening audiogram in 2003-2005 and brain magnetic resonance imaging in 2014-2016. Hearing ability was defined as the average pure tone threshold (PTA) at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz in the better-hearing ear. Brain-predicted age difference (Brain-pad) was calculated as the difference between brain-predicted age based on a validated structural imaging biomarker of brain age, and chronological age. Regional diffusion metrics in temporal and frontal cortex regions were obtained from diffusion-weighted MRIs. Linear regression analyses adjusted for age, gender, education, and health-related measures.

Results

PTAs were not associated with brain-PAD (β= 0.09; 95% CI: -0.084 to 0.243; p = 0.34). PTAs were associated with reduced restricted diffusion and increased free water diffusion primarily in right hemisphere temporal and frontal areas (restricted diffusion: βs = -0.21 to -0.30; 95% CIs from -0.48 to -0.02; ps < 0.03; free water: βs = 0.18 to 0.26; 95% CIs 0.01 to 0.438; ps < 0.04).

Conclusions

Hearing impairment is not associated with advanced brain aging but is associated with differences in brain regions involved with auditory processing and attentional control. It is thus possible that increased dementia risk associated with hearing impairment arises, in part, from compensatory brain changes that may decrease resilience.

SUBMITTER: McEvoy LK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10793660 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Elevated Pure Tone Thresholds Are Associated with Altered Microstructure in Cortical Areas Related to Auditory Processing and Attentional Allocation.

McEvoy Linda K LK Bergstrom Jaclyn J Hagler Donald J DJ Wing David D Reas Emilie T ET

Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD 20230101 3

<h4>Background</h4>Hearing loss is associated with cognitive decline and increased risk for Alzheimer's disease, but the basis of this association is not understood.<h4>Objective</h4>To determine whether hearing impairment is associated with advanced brain aging or altered microstructure in areas involved with auditory and cognitive processing.<h4>Methods</h4>130 participants, (mean 76.4±7.3 years; 65% women) of the Rancho Bernardo Study of Healthy Aging had a screening audiogram in 2003-2005 an ...[more]

PMID: 37955091

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Project description:ObjectivesCognitive load (CL) impairs listeners' ability to comprehend sentences, recognize words, and identify speech sounds. Recent findings suggest that this effect originates in a disruption of low-level perception of acoustic details. Here, we attempted to quantify such a disruption by measuring the effect of CL (a two-back task) on pure-tone audiometry (PTA) thresholds. We also asked whether the effect of CL on PTA was greater in older adults, on account of their reduced ability to divide cognitive resources between simultaneous tasks. To specify the mechanisms and representations underlying the interface between auditory and cognitive processes, we contrasted CL requiring visual encoding with CL requiring auditory encoding. Finally, the link between the cost of performing PTA under CL, working memory, and speech-in-noise (SiN) perception was investigated and compared between younger and older participants.DesignYounger and older adults (44 in each group) did a PTA test at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz pure tones under CL and no CL. CL consisted of a visual two-back task running throughout the PTA test. The two-back task involved either visual encoding of the stimuli (meaningless images) or subvocal auditory encoding (a rhyme task on written nonwords). Participants also underwent a battery of SiN tests and a working memory test (letter number sequencing).ResultsYounger adults showed elevated PTA thresholds under CL, but only when CL involved subvocal auditory encoding. CL had no effect when it involved purely visual encoding. In contrast, older adults showed elevated thresholds under both types of CL. When present, the PTA CL cost was broadly comparable in younger and older adults (approximately 2 dB HL). The magnitude of PTA CL cost did not correlate significantly with SiN perception or working memory in either age group. In contrast, PTA alone showed strong links to both SiN and letter number sequencing in older adults.ConclusionsThe results show that CL can exert its effect at the level of hearing sensitivity. However, in younger adults, this effect is only found when CL involves auditory mental representations. When CL involves visual representations, it has virtually no impact on hearing thresholds. In older adults, interference is found in both conditions. The results suggest that hearing progresses from engaging primarily modality-specific cognition in early adulthood to engaging cognition in a more undifferentiated way in older age. Moreover, hearing thresholds measured under CL did not predict SiN perception more accurately than standard PTA thresholds.

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Dataset Information

Elevated Pure Tone Thresholds Are Associated with Altered Microstructure in Cortical Areas Related to Auditory Processing and Attentional Allocation.

Background

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Elevated Pure Tone Thresholds Are Associated with Altered Microstructure in Cortical Areas Related to Auditory Processing and Attentional Allocation.

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