Acceleration of Age-Related Hearing Loss by Early Noise Exposure: Evidence of a Misspent Youth

By S. Kujawa, M. Liberman. Journal of Neuroscience, 2006

666 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Age-related and noise-induced hearing losses in humans are multifactorial, with contributions from, and potential interactions among, numerous variables that can shape final outcome. A recent retrospective clinical study suggests an age–noise interaction that exacerbates age-related hearing loss in previously noise-damaged ears (Gates et al., 2000). Here, we address the issue in an animal model by comparing noise-induced and age-related hearing loss (NIHL; AHL) in groups of CBA/CaJ mice exposed identically (8–16 kHz noise band at 100 dB sound pressure level for 2 h) but at different ages (4–124 weeks) and held with unexposed cohorts for different postexposure times (2–96 weeks). When evaluated 2 weeks after exposure, maximum threshold shifts in young-exposed animals (4–8 weeks) were 40–50 dB; older-exposed animals (≥16 weeks) showed essentially no shift at the same postexposure time. However, when held for long postexposure times, animals with previous exposure demonstrated AHL and histopathology fundamentally unlike unexposed, aging animals or old-exposed animals held for 2 weeks only. Specifically, they showed substantial, ongoing deterioration of cochlear neural responses, without additional change in preneural responses, and corresponding histologic evidence of primary neural degeneration throughout the cochlea. This was true particularly for young-exposed animals; however, delayed neuropathy was observed in all noise-exposed animals held 96 weeks after exposure, even those that showed no NIHL 2 weeks after exposure. Data suggest that pathologic but sublethal changes initiated by early noise exposure render the inner ears significantly more vulnerable to aging.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Sensory Systems, Speech and Hearing

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/197810cb4486d1325dbe1f484ddd8df6b2e79510

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

1. Sharon G. Kujawa
2. M. Liberman
3. S. Kujawa
4. Mathias Basner

In Sensory Systems

1. Sharon G. Kujawa
2. M. Liberman
3. S. Kujawa

In Speech and Hearing

1. Sharon G. Kujawa
2. M. Liberman
3. Mathias Basner
4. W. Babisch

Citations in the corpus

• Adding Insult to Injury: Cochlear Nerve Degeneration after “Temporary” Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (2009, background): “In contrast, noise-induced loss of spiral ganglion cells (SGCs), the cell bodies of the cochlear afferent neurons contacting these hair cells, is delayed by months and can progress for years (Kujawa and Liberman, 2006).”
• Toward a Differential Diagnosis of Hidden Hearing Loss in Humans (2016, background): “This is especially important given evidence from animal studies that early noise exposure causes an acceleration of subsequent age-related cochlear degeneration [38, 39].”
• Auditory and non-auditory effects of noise on health (2013, background): “30,31 In addition to noise, factors such as alcohol and tobacco use and hyperglycaemia are associated with age-related hearing loss.”
• Synaptopathy in the noise-exposed and aging cochlea: primary neural degeneration in acquired sensorineural hearing loss (2015, background): “Direct evidence for lingering post-exposure neural damage came to light in a study designed to probe the interactions between early noise-exposure and aging (Kujawa and Liberman, 2006).”