Hearing Loss and the Shift of Cognitive Function from Memory

The shift of cognitive function from memory to hearing is similar to the way people with vision loss shift cognitive function to their other senses. When a child is born with a congenital defect that causes deafness or blindness, the loss of sense affects the brain so that the other senses take over for the missing ability. It has been shown patients who are blind from birth use their hearing, touch and smell with more fine tuned abilities than people who are normally sighted.

This same shifting of brain function happens when a child or adult is injured and loses their ability to use one of their senses. Through advances in modern medicine, there are surgical treatments and other therapies that can often lessen the effect of the disabling injury. However, when there is no medical treatment available, over time the senses that are undamaged tend to take over for the sense that was lost. Smell, touch and even taste often provide more information to a blind person for analysis than any sighted person could ever experience.

As with those patients who have vision impairment, the hearing impaired patient’s brain shifts its function from areas less necessary than hearing. It has been found, through recent medical studies, that the patient’s brain will utilize less of the area of the brain required for short term memory in order to attempt to hear more clearly. Unfortunately, with this particular cognitive shift, the diagnosis of one of the individual medical conditions is overshadowed by the symptoms of the other. Memory loss can cause a delayed diagnosis of hearing loss and vice versa.

Neurologists, doctors who specialize in the brain and doctors who specialize in hearing, need to be aware of this cognitive shift that may be happening in their patients. Awareness of the potential for both medical conditions can aid the full diagnosis and treatment of both hearing and memory loss. Simple hearing aids assisting the patients with hearing conversational speech can greatly decrease the symptoms experienced by patients who also show signs of memory loss conditions. It is important for doctors and caregivers of aging patients to be aware of the links discovered between hearing loss and memory loss so they may be better informed in deciding a patient’s course of treatment.

Share and Enjoy: