Abstract
The prevailing treatment of age-related hearing loss is compensation of peripheral functional deficits by hearing aids (HAs) and cochlear implants (CIs). This does not address that aging affects both the peripheral and central auditory systems. The important role that training and therapy play in promoting compensatory brain reorganization as older adults acclimatize to new technologies is emphasized. HA use is associated with better cognition, independently of social isolation and depression. Modern CIs rely on the pitch–place code and provide frequency-specific information via electrical activation of restricted regions of the cochlea. Normally, the ability to perform electrode-pitch perception correlates with good speech perception. Speech perception is highly correlated with the length of auditory experience before or with a CI. There is increasing evidence that cochlear implantation is a successful treatment for improving speech recognition and offers a great help in everyday life to deafened elderly patients. The effects of speech-perception training in the elderly have been mixed, with typical small effects and absence of generalization. Audiovisual integration, as in lip reading, may be improved by training, but results have been inconclusive.
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