Originally published September 27 2005
Hearing loss may contribute to memory problems, scientists say
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Scientists from Brandeis University suggest that patients with hearing problems, particularly the elderly, spend so much effort trying to understand conversations that they don't recall the information very well, but US News reports friends and family can help with this problem by changing their speech styles.
"This can seem like some age-related memory problem like mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's, but it's really a sensory problem," says Arthur Wingfield, a cognitive neuroscientist at Brandeis University.
In the new issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, Wingfield and his colleagues report that they tested 24 healthy adults, ages 66 to 81.
None of them had cognitive problems, but half of the group did have mild-to-moderate hearing loss.
The people with hearing loss could recall the very last word but not the two immediately before it.
With age, people lose the ability to hear some higher pitches and to discern sounds in rapid sequence, so they have to focus a lot of their brainpower on simply understanding the word.
"If you are performing at capacity, and try and do two things at once, you'll perform below standard on the second task."
Since 1 in 3 people over age 60 has some hearing loss, this is a widespread problem.
It means that older people may have trouble remembering instructions given by doctors or caregivers and important things said by family members.
Hearing aids---shunned by two thirds of these people---are only a partial solution.
They help clarify higher pitches, but don't help distinguish rapid sounds.
What does help, Wingfield says, is if doctors and family members speak more slowly.
"But I don't mean dragging out words.
This gives people extra time to process the meaning."
Studies have shown that inserting a pause of only a second or two between clauses or sentences dramatically improves memory performance.
To learn if you have a hearing problem that may underlie memory troubles, the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders suggests people take this simple quiz.
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