Study Shows How Hearing Loss in Old Age Affects the Brain

New research has studied the brain of mice that exhibit hereditary hearing loss, similar to age related hearing loss in humans.

The new research provided fresh insights into the putative cause of the relationship between cognitive decline and age-related hearing loss in humans.

Daniela Beckmann, Mirko Feldmann, Olena Shchyglo and Professor Denise Manahan-Vaughan from the Department of Neurophysiology of the Medical Faculty worked together for the study.

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‘New research has studied the brain of mice that exhibit hereditary hearing loss, similar to age related hearing loss in humans.’

When sensory perception fades

The scientists analyzed the density of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain that are crucial for memory formation. They also researched the extent to which information storage in the brain's most important memory organ, the hippocampus, was affected.

Adaptability of the brain suffers

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Memory is enabled by a process called synaptic plasticity. In the hippocampus, synaptic plasticity was chronically impaired by progressive hearing loss. The distribution and density of neurotransmitter receptors in sensory and memory regions of the brain also changed constantly. The stronger the hearing impairment, the poorer were both synaptic plasticity and memory ability.

"We believe that the constant changes in neurotransmitter receptor expression caused by progressive hearing loss create shifting sands at the level of sensory information processing that prevent the hippocampus from working effectively", she adds.

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Source-Eurekalert

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