Might early hearing impairment lead to cognitive challenges later in life? Yune Lee from the Ohio State University talks with us in episode 30 about his research into how even minor hearing loss can increase the cognitive load required to distinguish spoken language. His open-access article  “Differences in hearing acuity among ‘normal-hearing’ young adults modulate the neural basis for speech comprehension” was published with multiple co-authors in the May 2018 issue in eNeuro.

{{svg_share_icon}}

 

Websites and other resources

Press

EurekaAlertHealthlineMedical News TodayMedIndia

 

Bonus Clips

Patrons of Parsing Science gain exclusive access to bonus clips from all our episodes and can also download mp3s of every individual episode.

Support us for as little as $1 per month at Patreon. Cancel anytime.

Please note that we’re not a tax-exempt organization, so unfortunately this gift isn’t tax deductible.

Hosts / Producers

Ryan Watkins & Doug Leigh

How to Cite

Watkins, R., Leigh, D., & Lee, Y. S.. (2018, August 21). Parsing Science – Hearing Loss and Cognition. figshare. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6994613

Music

What’s The Angle? by Shane Ivers

Transcript

Yune Lee: We were convinced that the right frontal area comes into play, even in with a very slight hearing decline.

Doug Leigh: This is Parsing Science: the unpublished story is behind the world’s most compelling science as told by the researchers themselves. I’m Doug Leigh.

Ryan Watkins: And I’m Ryan Watkins. While death and taxes may be the only certainties in life, it’s often the case that the older we get, the poorer our hearing becomes. Today, we’re joined by Yune Lee from the Ohio State University. He’ll talk with us about his research which suggests that hearing loss among younger people can tax their cognitive resources in ways that are typically not encountered until our 50s. Here’s Yune Lee.

Lee: Hi, my name is Yune Lee. I’m an assistant professor of chronic brain injury, and speech and hearing science department at the Ohio State University. So, I’ve been here for almost two years, and my main expertise domain is in the auditory neuroscience with speech, language and music. So, we study how speech and music are connected in the brain, by using fMRI or some other portable neuro imaging device called a functional near-infrared spectroscopy or fNIRS.

Read More

Share a clip from the episode