That title may have you asking, what exactly is cognitive health? According to Merriam-Webster, cognitive means, “of, relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity” (such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering). So, when we talk about cognitive health, we mean the ability to focus brain-power, to concentrate on various tasks and think them through.
That’s important in the world of hearing health, because it is the brain that has the final say when it comes to the sense of hearing. In fact, hearing loss is associated with a 30–40% accelerated rate of cognitive decline, and a 24% increased risk of cognitive impairment compared to normal hearing.
Hearing with our brains
Our ears are only the first stop sound makes on the path to actually being heard. The ear collects sound and funnels it through the ear canal, where it vibrates the eardrum. The eardrum sets into motion a series of tiny bones that transfer those vibrations to the cochlea. Inside the cochlea, tiny hair cells turn those vibrations into electrical impulses that are sent to the brain. This is the point when the waves that entered through the ear are finally recognized as sound.
Our brains process sound all the time, but we don’t always need to focus on it. We’re just aware that it’s happening and respond if a sound we’re trained to recognize comes along (e.g., a loved one’s voice, the telephone, a door bell). But when we’re having a conversation, enjoying a radio or television program, or doing any other kind of active listening, we have to deliberately focus our hearing; that requires cognitive energy, or brain-power.
Overworking our brains
People who develop hearing loss have to work harder at listening, because the sounds they wish to hear are being interfered with on the way to the brain, either by an obstruction in the ear canal, injury to the eardrum or its partner bones, or by damage to the hair cells inside the cochlea. The harder we have to work when focusing on sound, the more demand we put on our brains. Over time, that extra cognitive loadmay cause the brain to take energy away from other responsibilities, in order to complete the act of hearing. Among the functions that may get short-changed are working memory (the ability to stay focused on an immediate task or hold information for the short term) and even our balance and gait, which rely quite a bit on information flowing to and from the brain.
In addition to the frustration and emotional stress of struggling to hear, research suggests that, as hearing loss progresses, cognitive stress can advance to a point where the brain becomes overloaded, opening the door to cognitive decline. Hearing loss can also cause social isolation, which is also seen as a risk factor for cognitive decline.
Wearing hearing aids can greatly reduce cognitive stress by making it easier to focus on sounds and allow the brain to go about its other business without undue strain. That’s just one of several well-being-related reasons to monitor changes in your hearing over time with annual hearing tests.
