Preprint · Nov 12, 2020
No association between age-related hearing loss and accelerated brain aging derived from structural neuroimaging data
By Rosemann S, Thiel CM
Aging affects the brain’s underlying biophysical structure as well as its’ cellular and molecular functioning. Brain aging varies largely across individuals and is accelerated in a variety of disease states. Age-related hearing loss affects a large part of the older population and has been shown to impact cognition, brain structure and function. The main aim of this study was to investigate whether age-related hearing loss accelerates brain aging and is related to a decrease in cognitive function and increase in daily listening effort. We used structural neuroimaging data from a large sample of elderly subjects (n=163) with mild to moderate uncompensated age-related hearing loss or normal hearing. An established machine learning approach was applied to predict brain age from grey and white matter maps. Predicted brain age and chronological age significantly correlated across all participants. However, the difference between the predicted brain age and chronological age was neither significantly different between hard of hearing and normal-hearing participants, nor was this age difference significantly associated with general cognitive status or daily life listening effort. We conclude that uncompensated mild to moderate age-related hearing loss has negligible effects on brain age derived from structural neuroimaging data.