Peer-reviewed scientific literature and reference sources establish that the range of human hearing, particularly the upper frequency limit, decreases with age.
<h4>Objective</h4>The purpose of this retrospective case review was to identify patterns of cochlear element degeneration in individuals with presbycusis exhibiting downward sloping audiometric patterns of hearing loss and to correlate these findings with those reported in the literature to clarify conflicting concepts regarding the association between hearing loss and morphologic abnormalities.<h4>Methods</h4>Archival human temporal bones from individuals with presbycusis were selected on the basis of strict audiometric criteria for downward-sloping audiometric thresholds. Twenty-one temporal bones that met these criteria were identified and compared with 10 temporal bones from individuals with normal hearing. The stria vascularis volumes, spiral ganglion cell populations, inner hair cells, and outer hair cells were quantitatively evaluated. The relationship between the severity of hearing loss and the degeneration of cochlear elements was analyzed using univariate linear regression models.<h4>Results</h4>Outer hair cell loss and ganglion cell loss was observed in all individuals with presbycusis. Inner hair cell loss was observed in 18 of the 21 individuals with presbycusis and stria vascularis loss was observed in 10 of the 21 individuals with presbycusis. The extent of degeneration of all four of the cochlear elements evaluated was highly associated with the severity of hearing loss based on audiometric thresholds at 8,000 Hz and the pure-tone average at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 Hz. The extent of ganglion cell degeneration was associated with the slope of the audiogram.<h4>Conclusions</h4>Individuals with downward-sloping audiometric patterns of presbycusis exhibit degeneration of the stria vascularis, spiral ganglion cells, inner hair cells, and outer hair cells that is associated with the severity of hearing loss. This association has not been previously reported in studies that did not use quantitative methodologies for evaluating the cochlear elements and strict audiometric criteria for selecting cases.
Abstract Sensation refers to the process of sensing our environment through touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. Changes in hearing thresholds with age are underlying presbycusis and the various forms are reflected in audiogram phenotypes for purely sensory, that is, high-frequency hearing loss. Purely metabolic forms show flat hearing losses and mixed sensory-metabolic forms also occur. A sizeable proportion of the elderly have normal audiograms. The rate of threshold change with age appears to be independent of acquired hearing loss due to occupational noise. Objective indicators of outer hair cell damage, the otoacoustic emissions, are reduced in amplitude regardless of the form of the audiogram, and appear to be more sensitive indicators of cochlear damage than the audiogram.
Growing evidence suggests that peripheral diseases serve as risk factors for dementia, but the population-level burden of dementia associated with various peripheral diseases has remained unknown. Here, by conducting a systematic review and Bayesian meta-analyses to estimate the relative risks of 26 peripheral diseases across 9 systems with dementia, including 202 articles searched from the PubMed until 6 September 2024, we identified 16 peripheral diseases as associated with increased risk of dementia. With the relative risks estimated from meta-analyses, prevalences extracted from the Global Burden of Disease Study, and communalities among these 16 peripheral diseases derived from the UK Biobank, we analysed the population attributable fractions (PAFs) of these 16 peripheral diseases for dementia, stratified by sex, age, sociodemographic index level, world region and country, and trends from 1990 to 2021. Globally, these peripheral diseases collectively were related to a combined PAF of 33.18% (95% confidence interval (CI) 16.80-48.43) of dementia burden, corresponding to 18.8 million prevalent cases. The leading ten PAF contributors were periodontal diseases (6.10%, 95% CI 0.95-10.28), cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases (5.51%, 95% CI 1.77-8.86), age-related and other hearing loss (4.70%, 95% CI 3.51-6.06), blindness and vision loss (4.30%, 95% CI 3.43-5.05), type 2 diabetes mellitus (3.80%, 95% CI 3.06-4.53), chronic kidney disease (2.74%, 95% CI 1.53-4.02), osteoarthritis (2.26%, 95% CI 0.41-4.12), stroke (1.01%, 95% CI 0.86-1.17), ischaemic heart disease (0.97%, 95% CI 0.69-1.29) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (0.92%, 95% CI 0.34-1.54). This study revealed that a series of peripheral diseases were associated with increased risk of dementia and collectively were related to about one-third of the global dementia burden, highlighting the need for targeted public health strategies.
Presbycusis and noise-induced hearing loss.
In a longitudinal and an age cohort comparing study the influence of aging and occupational noise exposure on hearing sensitivity was studied. The participants of the longitudinal study were studied at 70, 75, and 79 years of age. Seventy year old men exposed to occupational noise had 10 to 15 dB poorer hearing in the high frequency range than nonexposed men. The difference in hearing acuity decreased with increasing age. The differences between exposed and nonexposed older persons was no longer significant at age 79. In women there were no differences in hearing sensitivity between those exposed to noise and those not exposed to noise. Men not exposed to noise had 10 to 15 dB poorer hearing at 4 kHz compared with women of the same age also not exposed to noise.
Published in Ear and hearing (1990)
To repeat man is a low-frequency form among mammals. The hearing capabilities in man were thoroughly examined by Fletcher and Munson (1933), using a large number of test subjects; a number of later studies confirmed their results on the frequency response of the human ear. Sensitivity is greatest in the frequency range of 3 kHz to 4 kHz; the upper limit of hearing is at ~ 20 kHz in children, but decreases with age toward presbycusis. Thus, for adults the upper limit of hearing is at ~ 15 kHz. Although the methods employed to determine the hearing capabilities in mammalian animals are widely different and both direct and indirect, it is nevertheless clear that only a few species do not have a hearing range extending into the range of ultrasound (frequencies above 20 kHz). One such indirect method was worked out by Fleischer (1973a, 1976a, 1976b), who demonstrated that the structure of the inner ear — especially the suspension system of the basilar membrane — depends on the hearing capability. From all the results available, elephants, camels, perhaps sloths, and various forms of moles apparently have similar, low-frequency characteristics of their ears. All of these species have a freely mobile type of the malleus-incus complex and tympanic membranes larger than those of others with comparable size of the inner ear.
With advancements in modern medicine and significant improvements in life conditions in the past four decades, the elderly population is rapidly expanding. There is a growing number of those aged 100 years and older. While many changes in the human body occur with physiological aging, as many as 35% to 50% of the population aged 65 to 75 years have presbycusis. Presbycusis is a progressive sensorineural hearing loss that occurs as people get older. There are many studies of the prevalence of age-related hearing loss in the United States, Europe, and Asia. However, no audiological assessment of
MOVEMENT It is stable, over a limited range of angles (the range of stability depends on the speed and … you can see how the frequency range of hearing (and the frequency range of best hearing) is defined. There … The quoted upper frequency limit for human hearing decreases with age. The units of frequency are Hz (Hertz)
frequency range of human speech is between 100 Hz and 10,000 Hz (Figure 1.4). The frequency range of human … human hearing decreases with age. Generally, a child can hear a range of frequencies from 20 Hz to 20,000 … later in this chapter. Analog Music The frequency range of music is from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz (Figure 1.4)
Everything we examined (8) — 7 independent sources
This check searched the claim as stated. It did not run a separate search for evidence against it.