How hearing loss in old age affects the brain:
If your hearing deteriorates in old age, the risk of dementia and cognitive decline increases. So far, it hasn't been clear why. A team of neuroscientists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) in Germany examined what happens in the brain when hearing gradually deteriorates: key areas of the brain are reorganized, and this affects memory. The results are published online in the journal "Cerebral Cortex" dated 20 March 2020.
[...] Memory is enabled by a process called synaptic plasticity. In the hippocampus, synaptic plasticity was chronically impaired by progressive hearing loss. The distribution and density of neurotransmitter receptors in sensory and memory regions of the brain also changed constantly. The stronger the hearing impairment, the poorer were both synaptic plasticity and memory ability.
"Our results provide new insights into the putative cause of the relationship between cognitive decline and age-related hearing loss in humans," said Denise Manahan-Vaughan. "We believe that the constant changes in neurotransmitter receptor expression caused by progressive hearing loss create shifting sands at the level of sensory information processing that prevent the hippocampus from working effectively," she adds.
Denise Manahan-Vaughan, Olena Shchyglo, Mirko Feldmann, Daniela Beckmann. Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity, Spatial Memory, and Neurotransmitter Receptor Expression Are Profoundly Altered by Gradual Loss of Hearing Ability. Cerebral Cortex, 2020; DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa061
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday May 02 2020, @12:43PM (2 children)
I thought it was a protection mechanism so you wouldn't have to hear other peoples whine and bullshit anymore. Interesting tho if it's just the age related one, so nothing about brain plasticity if you are just "naturally" deaf or had some cause of deafening accident.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:01PM
Actually it's so you can drive everyone else mad by yelling "Wha..?" right in the middle of their dull story, right at the moment they're savoring the punchline. WHA? SPEAK UP. HAVE YOU SEEN MY GLASSES? THAT REMINDS ME...
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday May 02 2020, @05:35PM
When you start getting old, nothing works as well as it used to, including your ears and brain. However, a sample of one tells me the connection between hearing loss and Alzheimer's is suspect: my mom is 92, wears hearing aids, and has no hint of Alzheimer's.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Saturday May 02 2020, @12:47PM (2 children)
Like all other brain functions, if you cut off the inputs the processor atrophies. If you lose your hearing and don't replace that stream of input with another stream of input, the downstream (linguistic processing, cognitive?) processes are going to stop getting exercise and slowly pack it in.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @01:47PM (1 child)
> Like all other brain functions, ...
Like all other functions, ...
FTFY
Stop using some muscle, it atrophies. Stop walking, leg bones lose bone mass, etc. Maybe not so surprising that brains respond the same way?
There are some exceptions--if ol' Eth stopped using his kidneys to process all that alcohol, they might last longer?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday May 02 2020, @02:26PM
The atrophy theory is good, but there may also be another negative effect from the mechanism trying to "fill in the blanks" of sensory deprivation, which could result in misinterpreted sentences at best and schizophrenia-like symptoms at worst.
My liver and kidneys are made of steel. But fortunately, drinking is a lot less fun during a pandemic so my days are spent running and camping and explaining to the public that Gavin Newsom is taking Chinese money to help destroy the social fabric of California. If he doesn't capitulate and fast, we're gonna see another Gray Davis-style recall along with the Dems losing a great deal of their political clout here, especially along with the increasing unpopularity of immigration.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @01:57PM
What was that? This thing needs new batteries!!!
(Score: 5, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday May 02 2020, @02:24PM (1 child)
If you can't hear other folks, you're stuck with just the stupid inside your own head.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:03PM
Speak for yourself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @04:02PM (1 child)
Yeah the hearing related brain regions will change if there's no input but is that really tied to short term memory?
Age related hearing loss is due to stuff is breaking down faster (e.g. blood flow is not as good, your ear hair cells are dying, etc).
Couldn't your short term memory also stop working properly for similar reasons because stuff is breaking down faster (blood and lymph flow is not as good, brain cells dying, etc).
Do people who became deaf at an early age get dementia earlier or later? https://www.scie.org.uk/dementia/living-with-dementia/sensory-loss/deafness.asp [scie.org.uk]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday May 03 2020, @03:25AM
Actually just more symptoms of age-related thyroid decline (not so much production, as conversion from T4 to T3). Per various studies (which I'll let you look up in JCEM for yourself), half of all cases of dementia are thyroid-related. Hearing loss can be ditto. Fix the damn T3 levels and all these problems go away. Thyroid-related dementia is reversible provided it's treated within the first ten years or so. In my experience, ditto hearing loss.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.