Hearing Health Affects Brain Health!

Every year we learn more about how important our auditory system in the brain is to our ability to communicate and our overall health. After-all, we hear with our brains, not our ears! The ear is just the funnel to get the sound into the brain.

In fact, on my way to work this morning I heard an ad touting the improvement in with the use of acoustic wave therapy! Wait, what?! Sound can improve our health?!?! I know what you're thinking -"That sounds very far-out-there, Dr. Hart!"

Our brains are simply amazing and nothing short of miraculous! Our brains have the ability to continually change, learn, and reorganize over a lifetime. That function is called neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially in response to learning, experience, or following injury. Unfortunately, our brain can also lose function when it's not properly being stimulated. Today I’m going to focus on the correlation of brain reorganization, cognition and hearing loss (I’ll save the discussion of the significant impact on other parts of our bodies including the heart, diabetes, falls, tinnitus, depression, and chronic kidney disease, for another day!)

Study after study has shown us that there is a significant correlation between brain reorganization, cognition, and hearing loss.

One study written in ScienceDaily in 2015 out of CU Boulder suggests that the portion of the brain devoted to hearing can become reorganized, even with early-stage hearing loss, and may play a role in cognitive decline.

The researchers applied fundamental principles of neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to forge new connections, to determine the ways it adapts to hearing loss, as well as the consequences of those changes (for example the need to use our eyes to help fill in the gaps for our ears can cause reorganization). "These compensatory changes increase the overall load on the brains of aging adults," one of the researchers, Sharma said. "Compensatory brain reorganization, secondary to hearing loss, may also be a factor in explaining recent reports in the literature that show age-related hearing loss is significantly correlated with dementia. One in three adults over the age of 60 has hearing loss," Sharma added. "Given that even small degrees of hearing loss can cause secondary changes in the brain, hearing screenings for adults and intervention in the form of hearing aids should be considered much earlier to protect against reorganization of the brain."

A study found in Frontiers in Neuroscience published in February of 2020 found that the hearing loss group, at baseline, exhibited more extensive shrinkage of the auditory, frontal, and prefrontal parts of the brain during a processing task, providing evidence of re-organization and compensatory cortical neuroplasticity. Furthermore, shrinkage of the right auditory cortex was associated with greater degree of hearing loss, poorer speech perception in noise, and worse cognitive function. Following clinical treatment with hearing aids, a reversal in re-organization of auditory cortex by vision was observed in the group, coinciding with gains in speech perception and cognitive performance. In other words, the patients did significantly better understanding speech and in their cognitive performances. Additionally, the brains reorganized in a more normal pattern. Thus, beyond the known benefits of hearing aid use in communication, outcomes from this study provide evidence that clinical intervention with well-fit amplification may promote more typical cortical organization, functioning and provide cognitive benefit.

These are just a few of the many, many studies suggesting that even a mild hearing impairment can cause the brain to reorganize and cause mal-adaptive function. The good news is that when your hearing loss is appropriately treated we are pulling you out of the sensory deprivation creating new synapses and new neural growth. This has been shown to significantly reduce and slow down the cognitive decline and reorganization of the brain. I was reminded today, that the more wrinkles on the brain we have, the smarter and healthier our brains are. So here's to more wrinkles!!

Did you hear?!? At the Academy of Doctors of Audiology conference in October, owner and audiologist of Hearing HealthCare Centers, Dr. Whitney Swander, was awarded the Leo Doerfler Award which recognizes an audiologist for demonstrating outstanding clinical services to their community throughout their career. The Doerfler Award is the ADA's most prestigious award.

Giant CONGRATULATIONS to Dr. Swander and giant THANK YOU to her community of patients who have helped her fulfill this mission.
THANK YOU!!!