Rosemann Stephanie, Thiel Christiane M
Biological Psychology, Department of Psychology, Department for Medicine and Health Sciences, Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstraße 114-118, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany.
Cluster of Excellence "Hearing4all", Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstraße 114-118, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany.
Neuroimage Rep. 2021 Jun 5;1(2):100020. doi: 10.1016/j.ynirp.2021.100020. eCollection 2021 Jun.
Aging affects the brain's underlying biophysical structure as well as its cellular and molecular functioning. Brain aging varies largely across individuals and is increased in a variety of disease states. Age-related hearing loss affects a large part of the older population and has been shown to correlate with changes in cognition, brain structure and function. The main aim of this study was to investigate whether an increased brain-predicted age is related to age-related hearing loss, an increase in daily listening effort and a decrease in cognitive function. We used structural neuroimaging data from a large sample of elderly subjects (n = 169) with mild to moderate untreated age-related hearing loss or normal hearing. An established machine learning approach was applied to predict brain age from grey and white matter maps. The brain-predicted age and chronological age significantly correlated across all participants. However, the difference between the brain-predicted age and chronological age was neither significantly correlated with high-frequency hearing loss, nor was this difference between brain-predicted age and chronological age significantly associated with general cognitive status or daily life listening effort. A multiple linear regression approach including age, hearing loss, listening effort and MOCA score as independent variables did not reveal any significant predictors of the difference between brain-predicted age and chronological age. We conclude that untreated mild to moderate age-related hearing loss has negligible effects on brain age derived from structural neuroimaging data.
衰老会影响大脑的潜在生物物理结构及其细胞和分子功能。大脑衰老在个体间差异很大，并且在多种疾病状态下会加剧。年龄相关性听力损失影响着很大一部分老年人群，并且已被证明与认知、脑结构和功能的变化相关。本研究的主要目的是调查大脑预测年龄的增加是否与年龄相关性听力损失、日常听力努力增加以及认知功能下降有关。我们使用了来自大量老年受试者（n = 169）的结构神经影像学数据，这些受试者患有轻度至中度未经治疗的年龄相关性听力损失或听力正常。应用一种既定的机器学习方法从灰质和白质图谱预测脑年龄。在所有参与者中，大脑预测年龄和实际年龄显著相关。然而，大脑预测年龄与实际年龄之间的差异既与高频听力损失无显著相关性，大脑预测年龄与实际年龄之间的这种差异也与一般认知状态或日常生活听力努力无显著关联。一种将年龄、听力损失、听力努力和蒙特利尔认知评估量表（MOCA）得分作为自变量的多元线性回归方法，并未揭示出大脑预测年龄与实际年龄之间差异的任何显著预测因素。我们得出结论，未经治疗的轻度至中度年龄相关性听力损失对源自结构神经影像学数据的脑年龄影响可忽略不计。
