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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Neurocognitive Aging and Behavior
Volume 17 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2025.1560307
A Cross-Sectional Study of How High-Frequency Hearing Loss Impacts Cognitive Functions in Middle-Aged-to-Older Adults
Provisionally accepted- 1Ear Science Institute Australia, Subiaco, Australia
- 2School of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- 3Curtin Medical School, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia, Australia
- 4Centre for Health and Ageing, School of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- 5Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands, Netherlands
- 6Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands, Netherlands
- 7Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
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Purpose: Research on the association between hearing loss and cognition has primarily focused on speech-range hearing frequencies (i.e., 0.5 to 4 kHz), as these frequencies are most relevant to everyday functioning. However, age-related hearing loss (ARHL) tends to impact higher-frequency hearing first, and more severely. Despite this, limited research has investigated the relationship between high-frequency (i.e., > 4 kHz) hearing loss and cognitive impairment. In the current study, we aimed to assess whether high-frequency hearing loss predicts non-verbal cognitive functions (i.e., visuospatial executive function, learning, and memory tasks) above and beyond speech-frequency hearing loss.: Participants were 241 English-speaking adults, aged 40 to 88 years, with hearing loss. Audiometrically assessed better-ear, speech-frequency (0.5, 1, 2 & 4 kHz; BE4PTA) and high-frequency (6 & 8 kHz; BE2PTA) hearing loss were compared to cognitive functions measured using non-verbal tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery; covariates included hearing-loss asymmetry, age, sex, premorbid IQ, and mental health measured with the short-form Depression Anxiety Stress Scales.Results: While correlation analyses demonstrated that all measured cognitive faculties were associated with both BE4PTA and BE2PTA, hierarchical linear regression analyses demonstrated that only BE4PTA predicted cognitive flexibility and working-memory ability after controlling for covariates; age primarily accounted for BE2PTA's cognitive effects.Conclusions: While both speech and higher-frequency hearing loss were associated with poorer cognition, only the former demonstrated effects beyond those of ageing. However, the present study only investigated two frequencies in the higher range, encouraging broader investigation of higher-frequency hearing's cognitive effects in the future.
Keywords: hearing loss 1, cognition 2, high frequency 3, working memory 4, Executive Function 5
Received: 15 Jan 2025; Accepted: 08 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jayakody, Mcilhiney, Stegeman and Eikelboom. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Dona M. P. Jayakody, Ear Science Institute Australia, Subiaco, Australia
Paul Mcilhiney, Ear Science Institute Australia, Subiaco, Australia
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.