Want more brain power? Mind your hearing.
That’s the conclusion from researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, who found that mild hearing loss is linked to brain atrophy in older adults.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that early intervention could prevent a decline toward difficulties in understanding speech.
When hearing declines, gray matter atrophy accelerates in the auditory areas of the brain, making it increasingly difficult for older adults to successfully understand what is being said to them.
"As hearing ability declines with age, interventions such as hearing aids should be considered not only to improve hearing but to preserve the brain," said lead author Jonathan Peelle, PhD, research associate in the Department of Neurology. "People hear differently, and those with even moderate hearing loss may have to work harder to understand complex sentences."
Read more about this here:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110831115946.htm
Comments