Speaker
Description
Older adults are at risk for both mild cognitive decline and feeling socially isolated, and hearing loss increases these risks. While previous studies report older adults to experience improved aspects of cognition and social wellbeing after both language learning and musical activities, the role of hearing loss in the success of these outcomes remains unclear. Moreover, despite the clear advantages of randomized controlled trials in diminishing potential bias effects, we previously experienced participant attrition when participants were not allocated to their preferred intervention. Therefore, this project aims to address these gaps by focusing on older adults with hearing loss while using non-randomized, self-selected training and control groups. Over one year, participants will successively engage in a 3-month choir and 3-month sign language lessons. Before-, after, and follow-up testing for each activity will be compared with a do-nothing control group. Primary outcomes assess cognitive function and social wellbeing, and secondary outcomes assess speech- and music-perception metrics. Baseline metrics include the Cognitive Reserve Index Questionnaires (CRIq – a proxy for resilience against cognitive decline) and the online digits-in-noise test (DIN). Preliminary analysis of baseline metrics in cohort 1 (n= 14, preliminary best ear PTA4 range: 20 – 55 dB) show a moderate association (R = -.646, p = .013) between CRIq and DIN scores, already suggesting a relationship between auditory processing and cognitive resilience. Ultimately, we hope to provide valuable insight into how language learning and musical training might prospectively contribute to healthy aging, accounting for the complex relationships among hearing loss, cognition and wellbeing, and speech- and music perception.