Role and Mechanism of Hearing Impairment in Cognitive Decline and Dementia

摘要 Jennifer A. Deal是一位流行病学家和老年病学家，在该部门担任助理科学家 流行病学，约翰霍普金斯布隆伯格医学院和第二次任命， 约翰霍普金斯医学院耳鼻咽喉头颈外科。她寻求一个 指导职业发展奖，以填补她目前的培训知识差距，使她的研究可以 成功地沟通了认知老化、听力学、耳鼻喉科、流行病学和认知 神经科学，以改善老年人的健康。 该培训计划描述了一个全面的五年计划，在临床上进行正式和非正式的指导。 听力障碍的各个方面和病理生理学，以及听力障碍的获取、分析和处理。 神经影像学数据在大型人群为基础的研究。培训计划包括教学课程， 和研讨会，临床观察，并指导研究由一个既定的和多样化的专家团队。 短期职业目标包括完成和传播高质量的指导研究， 出版物和演示文稿，并从第四年开始申请独立的R01资金， 奖励期。长期的职业目标是成为一个独立的调查员在该地区的老龄化和认知 衰退和痴呆症，并具有听力障碍方面的专业知识。 拟议研究的具体目的是量化HI事件痴呆的独立关联 在三项特征良好的前瞻性观察性研究中， 研究HI与脑容量随时间变化的关系（均在与阿尔茨海默氏症相关的区域 疾病和听觉处理），并量化血管因子在HI发展中的作用。 完成建议的目标将阐明听力障碍在痴呆症中的作用和机制， 领域特异性认知下降，为未来的临床研究提供了可能的目标， 为预防老年人出现这些不良后果提供信息。

ABSTRACT Jennifer A. Deal is an epidemiologist and gerontologist, with a position as Assistant Scientist in the Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Medicine and a secondary appointment in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She seeks a mentored career development award to fill knowledge gaps in her current training so that her research can successfully bridge the diverse fields of cognitive aging, audiology, otolaryngology, epidemiology and cognitive neuroscience in order to improve the health of older adults. The training proposal describes a comprehensive five-year plan of formal and informal instruction in the clinical aspects and pathophysiology of hearing impairment, as well as the acquisition, analysis and processing of neuroimaging data in large population-based studies. The training program consists of didactic coursework and seminars, clinic observations, and mentored research by an established and diverse team of experts. Short-term career goals include completion and dissemination of high-quality mentored research through publications and presentations and application for independent R01 funding beginning in the fourth year of the award period. Long-term career goals are to be an independent investigator in the area of aging and cognitive decline and dementia, with expertise in hearing impairment. The specific aims of the proposed research are to quantify the independent association of HI incident dementia and with domain-specific cognitive decline in three well-characterized prospective observational studies, to investigate the relationship of HI with changes in brain volume over time (both in regions related to Alzheimer’s disease and to auditory processing), and to quantify the role of vascular factors in the development of HI. Completion of the proposed aims will elucidate the role and mechanism of hearing impairment in dementia and domain-specific cognitive decline, providing possible targets for future clinical research with the potential to inform efforts to prevent these adverse outcomes in older adults.