Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is associated with increased listening effort due to greater cognitive demands needed for supporting effective communication. Verbal working memory (WM) is an important mechanism supporting speech understanding in adults with ARHL....
Early findings suggest hearing aid use is associated with different patterns of brain activation during listening tasks, but the study is too preliminary to recommend changing hearing aid fitting or counselling practices.
Understanding how hearing aid use shapes the brain's cognitive listening effort could help justify earlier fitting and inform patient counselling about cognitive benefits of amplification.
- 01Cortical activation during auditory working memory tasks differed by hearing aid use status in older adults.
- 02Study focuses on age-related hearing loss and the cognitive effort required to process sound.
- 03Findings link hearing aid use to measurable differences in brain-level listening effort.
- 04Published in Scientific Reports, suggesting peer-reviewed scrutiny.
- 05Results may support the cognitive case for hearing aid adoption but require replication.
Cortical activation during auditory working memory tasks varies depending on hearing aid use status in adults with age-related hearing loss.
studypartially supportedHearing aid use is associated with differences in cognitive listening effort as measured by brain activation.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42336982
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41598-026-59089-3.
- Journal
- Scientific Reports
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 2b
- Population
- Adults with age-related hearing loss, grouped by hearing aid use status
- Intervention
- Hearing aid use (vs. non-use) during auditory working memory tasks
- Comparator
- Non-hearing-aid users with age-related hearing loss
Primary outcomes
Cortical activation patterns during auditory working memory tasks