Dementia and hearing - what's the connection?

We know that there is brain shrinkage with ageing. This can reduce thinking abilities, effecting all areas of life and resulting in diminished conversation and relationship. Presbycusis is the term for age related hearing loss.

With hearing loss present, the brain must work hard to decode speech to work out words, sentences and meaning. This diverts resource away from other brain functions, such as making a memory.

Disengagement from social connections, feeling of loneliness increased. This can also lead to depression, cardiovascular disease and an increase in mortality. 

Reduced information (stimulus) reaching the brain can result in the loss of brain function in certain areas. With greater hearing loss and delay in remedy, the rehabilitation process becomes more difficult. This then requires greater brain resource to re-learn a new ‘normal’ level between conscious and subconscious hearing. The brain can ‘rewire’ itself to a degree to reallocate resource – known as Neural Plasticity, however the length of  time for this to occur increases with delayed intervention.