In this project, Professor Jason Warren at University College London explores how hearing loss plays a role in two different types of dementia to enhance listening environments for people living with dementia.
Project start date: September 2022
Project end date: March 2026
About the project
We hear with our brains as much as with our ears. We know that different dementias target the brain in different ways, and that hearing changes may give an early warning of dementia – but our understanding of the links between hearing loss and dementia are incomplete.
Professor Jason Warren’s research team aim to support earlier dementia diagnosis and improve hearing and communication for people with dementia, using new, ‘smart’ brain-friendly technologies.
How it works
The research team will compare hearing brain and ear function in people that have one of two forms of dementia: Alzheimer’s disease and primary progressive aphasia (a major dementia of younger people). They will test people’s hearing scores and brain changes in everyday listening environments, and measure the hearing brain’s ‘plasticity’ – its capacity to adapt and recover from damage.
The team will also evaluate how hearing measures could predict dementia diagnosis and brain degeneration, and use this information to design and test new digital software and ‘virtual reality’ applications to develop ‘smart’ hearing aids.
What we’ve learned so far
This project has shown that dementia affects not only how well people hear, but how their brains process and make sense of the sounds around them. Researchers found that changes in “brain hearing” can occur early in Alzheimer’s disease and primary progressive aphasia, and may help identify these conditions sooner.
Key findings include:
- Brain hearing tests can reveal communication difficulties that standard hearing tests miss, particularly in noisy everyday environments.
- Hearing impairment was linked to faster brain shrinkage and cognitive decline, helping researchers better understand the connection between hearing loss and dementia.
- New measures of brain hearing were better at predicting real-world communication difficulties than traditional hearing tests.
- Researchers developed innovative hearing assessments and virtual listening environments that could support earlier diagnosis and help shape future technologies to improve communication for people living with dementia.
Together, these findings are helping to build a clearer picture of the link between hearing loss and dementia, and could lead to new ways of identifying, monitoring and supporting people affected by these conditions.
About the researcher
Professor Jason Warren is Professor of Neurology at University College London. This project was awarded the RNID Discovery Research Grant, funded in partnership with Alzheimer’s Research UK.
I believe the fundamental importance of our brains for successful hearing – particularly in noisy listening environments – is still under-appreciated by researchers in the hearing and dementia communities. I really hope projects like ours will help to change this perspective – and get these communities working more closely together.”
