Abstract
Brain reserve is a topic of great interest to researchers in aging medicine field. Some individuals retain well-preserved cognitive function until they fulfill their lives despite significant brain pathology. One concept that explains this paradox is the reserve hypothesis, including brain reserve that assumes a virtual ability to mitigate the effects of neuropathological changes and reduce the effects on clinical symptoms flexibly and efficiently by making complete use of the cognitive and compensatory processes. One of the surrogate measures of reserve capacity is brain volume. Evidence that dementia and hearing loss are interrelated has been steadily accumulating, and age-related hearing loss is one of the most promising modifiable risk factors of dementia. Research focused on the imaging analysis of the aged brain relative to auditory function has been gradually increasing. Several morphological studies have been conducted to understand the relationship between hearing loss and brain volume. In this mini review, we provide a brief overview of the concept of brain reserve, followed by a small review of studies addressing brain morphology and hearing loss/hearing compensation, including the findings obtained from our previous study that hearing loss after middle age could affect hippocampal and primary auditory cortex atrophy.
Highlights
With the increase in aging population globally, dementia is a rapidly growing public health problem
We provide a brief overview of the concept of brain reserve, followed by a small review of studies addressing brain morphology and hearing loss/hearing compensation
The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) analyzed brain volume measurements performed with semi-automated region-of interest (ROI) algorithms of individuals with normal hearing versus those with hearing impairment followed for a mean of 6.4 years after the baseline scan (n = 126, age 56–86 years) (Lin et al, 2014)
Summary
With the increase in aging population globally, dementia is a rapidly growing public health problem. The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) analyzed brain volume measurements performed with semi-automated region-of interest (ROI) algorithms of individuals with normal hearing versus those with hearing impairment (speech-frequency pure tone average > 25 dB) followed for a mean of 6.4 years after the baseline scan (n = 126, age 56–86 years) (Lin et al, 2014).
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