Cognitive Abilities in Hearing Loss: Perceived and Performance Abilities of Adults Related to Attention, Memory, and Social Cognition

Hearing loss is the most common sensory deficit noted in aging adults. It is commonly known to reduce an individual’s ability to detect, identify, and localize sounds and speech and to cause issues in communication. However, there are other less commonly discussed impacts that hearing loss has beyond the auditory system. Literature suggests a correlation between hearing loss and cognition in aging adults. Similar to hearing loss, the domains of cognition experience performance and functional changes across the life span. In an aging adult, changes related to cognition are also suggested to be associated with hearing loss. This study aimed to add to the corpus of literature surrounding the relationship between hearing loss and cognition, specifically memory, attention, executive functioning, and social cognition in adults with and without hearing loss. The purpose of this multi-methods study was to describe if group differences in adults with and without hearing loss existed between perceived and performance-related cognitive abilities. The study focused on twenty-eight adults between the ages of 50-69 years; fourteen adults had normal hearing, while fourteen adults had hearing loss which ranged in the mild to moderate sensorineural range. Based on age and hearing loss, adults were separated into four distinct groups: normal hearing between the ages of 50-59 years, hearing loss between the ages of 50-59 years, normal hearing between the ages of 60-69 years, and hearing loss between the ages of 60-69 years. Performance-related cognitive abilities were assessed through five different cognitive assessments: the Weschler Memory Scale, Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale, Faux Pas stories, Advanced Clinical Solutions, and Bluegrass Short-Term Memory task. Perceived abilities were addressed through structured, open-ended questions that centered around the impacts of hearing and hearing loss and an individual’s communication abilities. The first aim examined how adults described the impacts of hearing loss and their communicative abilities. Individual responses highlighted what impacts adults thought hearing loss had beyond communication and their communicative abilities. The majority of adults expressed that they did not have any communication errors and could accurately express their own thoughts/viewpoints/emotions and understand others’ thoughts/viewpoints/emotions. The second aim determined that group differences were present on memory subtests from the Weschler Memory Scale and a subtest from the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale. While there was no significant difference between responses on the Bluegrass Short-Term Memory task, there was a group interaction on left frontal theta oscillation (memory & decision-making related), and right frontal beta frequency (attention-related) during data collection on EEG resting state eyes open. The final aim determined that there were group differences on the social cognitive assessment. Auditory and cognitive processing have previously been viewed as separate and distinct factors that are crucial for communication, yet the growing body of literature suggests that these elements are actually intimately coupled. This research yielded evidence that even a mild HL in adults between the ages of 50-69 is associated with changes in cognitive functioning, specifically on memory, attention, and social cognition. Singularly, the auditory system and cognitive domains are each complex, yet these must be assessed as factors that have the potential to influence each other. The open-ended questions revealed that researchers and clinicians need to continue to address the wideranging impacts of hearing loss among adults. While adults did recognize impacts of hearing loss beyond communication, some participants also reported no thoughts on the impact beyond communication. This is a strong suggestion that adults need to be further educated about hearing loss as a critically prevalent public health matter

Gauging Working Memory Capacity from Differential Resting Brain Oscillations in Older Individuals with a Wearable Device

Working memory is a core cognitive function and its deficits is one of the most common cognitive impairments. Reduced working memory capacity manifests as reduced accuracy in memory recall and prolonged speed of memory retrieval in older adults. Currently, the relationship between healthy older individuals’ age-related changes in resting brain oscillations and their working memory capacity is not clear. Eyes-closed resting electroencephalogram (rEEG) is gaining momentum as a potential neuromarker of mild cognitive impairments. Wearable and wireless EEG headset measuring key electrophysiological brain signals during rest and a working memory task was utilized. This research’s central hypothesis is that rEEG (e.g., eyes closed for 90 s) frequency and network features are surrogate markers for working memory capacity in healthy older adults. Forty-three older adults’ memory performance (accuracy and reaction times), brain oscillations during rest, and inter-channel magnitude-squared coherence during rest were analyzed. We report that individuals with a lower memory retrieval accuracy showed significantly increased alpha and beta oscillations over the right parietal site. Yet, faster working memory retrieval was significantly correlated with increased delta and theta band powers over the left parietal sites. In addition, significantly increased coherence between the left parietal site and the right frontal area is correlated with the faster speed in memory retrieval. The frontal and parietal dynamics of resting EEG is associated with the “accuracy and speed trade-off” during working memory in healthy older adults. Our results suggest that rEEG brain oscillations at local and distant neural circuits are surrogates of working memory retrieval’s accuracy and processing speed. Our current findings further indicate that rEEG frequency and coherence features recorded by wearable headsets and a brief resting and task protocol are potential biomarkers for working memory capacity. Additionally, wearable headsets are useful for fast screening of cognitive impairment risk

The Effectiveness of Serotonin and Tricyclic Antidepressants in Tinnitus Management: A Rapid Review

Background: Tinnitus can be defined as a health condition characterized by the perception of sound, either in the head and/or ears, in the absence of any external acoustic stimulus. Perception is often quantified by self-report, or the use of patient reported outcome measures (PROMs). The purpose of this rapid review was to evaluate the level and quality of evidence regarding the use of serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRI), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), and tricyclic antidepressants as measured by tinnitus patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and/or Visual Analog Scales (VAS). Methods: The Cochrane Rapid Review guidelines were followed. The PICO mnemonic was used to “frame” the research question. The search strategy was developed and executed in three databases: MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were established a priori. The search, identification, and selection process were plotted using the PRISMA Flow Diagram. Results were extracted to a custom form. Critical appraisal and risk of bias assessments were completed using standard critical appraisal tools. Results: Three hundred and seventy-five publications were identified and deduplicated, 286 were screened, 266 were deemed irrelevant. Twenty publications were identified for full text review. Seven randomized controlled trials (RCT) met the inclusion criteria and were assessed for design, quality, and bias. The level and quality of the RCT studies included were rated. Statistically significant benefits for amitriptyline, nortriptyline, fluoxetine with alprazolam, and sertraline were reported for tinnitus sufferers whereas fluoxetine alone, trazodone, vestipitant or vestipitant with paroxetine, or paroxetine alone did not demonstrate significant results. A meta-analysis was not completed due to the heterogeneity of studies. Conclusions: Despite promising results, there remains insufficient rigorous high-quality research evidence to indicate that antidepressants can effectively treat subjective tinnitus at this time