Cochlear Implants (Photo : Reuters)
Senior people have been found to benefit from cochlear implants emotionally and cognitively.
A new study shows that cochlear implants, which are mainly used to help deaf people hear, can also boost old people's emotional state and cognitive abilities.
Funded by cochlear implant makers, the study involved 94 seniors who were aged between 65 and 85. The old people were assessed on their current condition before receiving a cochlear implant. A year and a half later after cochlear implants were installed, they were assessed again, according to Web MD.
The researchers found that the cochlear implants might have given improvements on speech perception for the senior patients in both noisy and quiet settings.
In addition, they also found out that the old people with cochlear implants scored lower on depression tests and had improved cognitive skills.
Dr. Isabelle Mosnier from the Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris was one of the researchers.
The researchers noted that hearing loss had been linked to increased chances of decline in cognitive abilities.
In fact, a study in 2011 reported that adults with severe hearing loss are five times more at risk to develop dementia, a broad category of diseases in the brain affecting the ability to think, according to Medical News Today.
"Our study demonstrates that hearing rehabilitation using cochlear implants in the elderly is associated with improvements in impaired cognitive function," the researchers said.
However, others are still skeptical about the benefits stated from cochlear implants.
Lenox Hill Hospital's director of otology, Dr. Ian Storper, asked many questions about the study, including if hearing loss improvements can also improve the ability to think and how long does the benefit last, if it does.
Storper said that further research is required to clearly show the benefits of improving hearing loss in old people.
