Hearing Loss & Cognitive Decline

Hearing loss can affect nearly every part of life. Not only does conversation become more difficult, but our awareness of our surroundings can change in any situation. We use hearing to locate our bodies in space, even subconsciously, and that ability helps us become aware of unexpected events, as well. With our hearing as the first line of response to oncoming dangers, we are highly aware of what the world has to offer us in terms of sound. With such a deep relationship between consciousness and hearing, it comes as no surprise that hearing loss can have a relationship with a loss of mental functioning, as well. 

Although anecdotal reports had long questioned if there was a relationship between hearing loss and cognitive decline, research in the last decade has confirmed that this relationship is a powerful one. Those who have hearing loss are more likely to experience cognitive decline, and once that decline begins, they tend to have a faster pace of decline. What drives this relationship? Although statistical measures have established the connection, the origins and causes of that connection remain somewhat unknown. Let’s look at a couple ideas about this connection, speculating why those with hearing loss are more likely to experience cognitive decline than their counterparts who do not have hearing loss. 

Hearing Loss and Mental Stimulation

In the most general sense, auditory information coming to the brain provides crucial stimulation to keep the mind active. Whereas we can close our eyes—and we do for many hours each night—our ears remain an active receptor of sensory information at all times. If a loud crash occurs during the night, our ears are the receptor that alerts the brain to wake up. Similarly, as we proceed through our lives, our ears provide all kinds of mental stimulation that keeps it active and healthy. 

Many neurologists and cognitive scientists liken the brain to a muscle. Without exercise and challenges, the brain can “weaken” and lose the sharpness that it once had. We use auditory information as a way to remain aware and able to decipher the many codes we are receiving through the ears. Without that activity, the brain can even atrophy, and research has demonstrated a loss of brain mass in the areas associated with auditory processing among those who have hearing loss. 

Conversation and Mental Sharpness

One of the functions of hearing is to allow us to carry on verbal communication. When we are hearing language, it does not come to our minds fully formed. Rather the auditory cortex of the brain is tasked with decoding the sounds we hear and passing them along to the frontal cortex for complex thought and processing. The fragments of sound usually combine to form meaningful words, phrases, and more complex units of meaning, but hearing loss introduces gaps in the process of auditory processing. Rather than a steady flow of recognizable language, the brain of a person with hearing loss encounters a jumble of random sounds, syllables, and phonemes that are difficult to assemble into ideas. This challenge presents itself to the mind as a puzzle without all the pieces, and other parts of the brain are recruited to the task of solving the problem. When the brain is consistently posed with this impossible challenge, it can suffer in other ways, and researchers speculate that this process leads to higher rates of dementia among those who have untreated hearing loss. 

Treatment and Brain Functioning

Getting treatment for hearing loss is showing promising results to eliminate the effects of hearing loss on cognition. Whereas those with hearing loss were more likely to have conditions such as dementia, those who get treatment in the form of hearing aids have the same rates of dementia and cognitive dysfunction as those who don’t have hearing loss at all! With this encouraging news in mind, the time is now to get a hearing test diagnostic and to see if treatment is right for you. The time spent living with untreated hearing loss might be doing damage to your cognitive functioning as the years go by, so don’t delay getting the help you need. With hearing aids used properly and regularly, you can solve the puzzle of language and keep your mind sharp.