You might think nothing of turning up the volume on your headphones or watching your favorite band from a front row seat. Maybe you love watching a ball game at the stadium packed with cheering crowds. However, recent research warns adults to be more cautious, because even subtle hearing loss could change your brain function.
Researching Hearing Loss
A recent study from the Ohio State University discovered that young people with subtle hearing loss are putting a lot of strain on their brains. Some of the participants had such mild hearing loss they didn’t even know they had a hearing deficit, but still their brain function changed. In fact, their brains functioned more like the brains of older adults than the brains of adults in their 20s and 30s.
Lead researcher Yune Lee and his colleagues studied brain activity patterns in adults between the ages of 18 and 41. Their study, published in the online journal eNeuro reports something unexpected and shocking. “Hearing loss, even minor deficits, can take a toll in young people—they’re using cognitive resources that could be preserved until much later in life,” explains Lee.
Lee used fMRI technology to monitor the brain activity of the adults in the study as they listened to various sentences. Some where easy sentences, and some were more complex, so the brains of the participants had to work harder to understand some sentences. Healthy adults processed all the sentences in the auditory and language centers of their left hemispheres. An interesting pattern emerged among the adults who had subtle hearing deficits. Rather than just seeing activation in the left hemisphere, those with hearing loss had activation in both left and right hemispheres! “This isn’t about the ear,” said Lee, “it’s about the brain, the cognitive process, and it shouldn’t be happening until people are at least older than 50.”
How the Brain Changes with Hearing Loss
As we age, we start to use our brains differently. Healthy young people use only the left hemisphere to understand speech, but as we age we begin to compensate for slower processing speeds by using both hemispheres to process language. For young adults with mild hearing loss, this compensation mechanism starts early. “Their brains already know that the perception of sound is not what it used to be, and the right side starts compensating for the left,” explains Lee.
This might not seem like a big problem, but it is a concern, since this could mean worse hearing comprehension as people with subtle hearing loss age. If they’re already using a mechanism that should help them hear when they’re older, what will happen when there’s not another side of the brain to tap into for easier understanding?
Linking Hearing Loss and Dementia
Another concern raised by this new research is the link between hearing loss and dementia. As the brain experiences more changes at a younger age, these adults are at greater risk of developing dementia. Research has shown that people with mild hearing loss are 50% more likely to suffer from dementia, and those with moderate or severe hearing loss could be three to five times more likely to have dementia.
“We can’t be sure, but we suspect that what happens is you put so much effort into listening you drain your cognitive resources, and that has a negative effect on your thinking and memory and that can eventually lead to dementia,” theorizes Lee.
Thinking About Your Hearing
What’s frightening about Lee’s research is that most of the adults in the study didn’t even know they had subtle hearing loss. Lee urges young adults to think about their hearing and realize that they could be doing a lot of harm even if they think their hearing is fine. It’s important to always wear hearing protection when in a loud place, turn down the volume on your workout playlist, and step out of the bar for a break when things get too loud. “Letting this process happen early in your life could be like spending your retirement money when you’re in your 30s,” says Lee. “You’re going to need that down the road.”
If you have hearing loss, visit My Hearing Centers for a hearing test, and help your brain hear.