Cognitive reserve disorder in age-related hearing loss: cognitive cortical compensatory to auditory perceptual processing

Abstract The aim of this study is to ascertain the mechanisms of cognitive reserve disorder in age-related hearing loss (ARHL), to study the correlation between ARHL and cognitive decline via EEG, and to reverse the adverse remodeling of auditory–cognitive connectivity with hearing aids (HAs). In this study, 32 participants were enrolled, including 12 with ARHLs, 9 with HAs, and 11 healthy controls (HCs), to undergo EEG, Pure Tone Average (PTA), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and other general cognitive tests. There were the lowest MoCA in the ARHL group (P = 0.001), especially in language and abstraction. In the ARHL group, power spectral density of the gamma in right middle temporal gyrus was significantly higher than HC and HA groups, while functional connectivity between superior frontal gyrus and cingulate gyrus was weaker than HC group (P = 0.036) and HA group (P = 0.021). In the HA group, superior temporal gyrus and cuneus had higher connectivity than in the HC group (P = 0.036). In the ARHL group, DeltaTM_DTA (P = 0.042) and CTB (P = 0.011) were more frequent than in the HC group, while there was less DeltaTM_CTA (P = 0.029). PTA was found to be associated with MoCA (r = −0.580) and language (r = −0.572), DeltaTM_CTB had a likewise correlation with MoCA (r = 0.483) and language (r = 0.493), while DeltaTM_DTA was related to abstraction (r = −0.458). Cognitive cortexes compensate for worse auditory perceptual processing in ARHL, which relates to cognitive decline. The impaired functional connectivity between auditory and cognitive cortexes can be remodeled by HAs. DeltaTM may serve as a biomarker for early cognitive decline and decreased auditory speech perception in ARHL.