09-11, 11:15–11:40 (Europe/Istanbul), Hearing Aids (ICC - B3 Floor - 3B/02)
A better understanding of cortical neuroplasticity accompanying hearing loss may allow us to improve intervention and rehabilitation for patients with hearing loss. compensation for the deleterious effects of hearing loss include recruitment of alternative brain networks during cortical processing. Our experiments suggest that early stage, mild-moderate, age-related hearing loss ranging results in significant changes in neural resource allocation, reflecting patterns of cross-modal compensation from the visual and somatosensory modalities, increased listening effort, and decreased cognitive spare capacity. Adults with untreated age-related hearing loss also show evidence of cognitive decline. Treatment with hearing aids reverse cross-modal recruitment of auditory cortex over the course of 6 months, coinciding with gains in auditory speech perception abilities, social-emotional processing and significant improvements in cognitive performance as measured by clinical tests of neurocognition. New data on results of neurocognitive changes with over-the-counter hearing aids will be discussed.
The rewiring brain: neurocognitive changes after prescription and OTC hearing aid use
Mustafa Karabulut is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Audiology at Çukurova University in Adana, Türkiye. He completed his PhD at Maastricht University Medical Center in Maastricht, The Netherlands, where his doctoral research focused on balance disorders and vestibular science. He holds both a Bachelor's and a Master’s degree in Audiology from Hacettepe University, Ankara, Türkiye. His research focuses on vestibular disorders, with particular interests in unilateral vestibular hypofunction, bilateral vestibulopathy, vestibular rehabilitation, patient-reported outcome measures, and emerging vestibular technologies including vestibular implants. He has published several papers in national and international peer-reviewed journals. Before joining Çukurova University, he worked as a Research Assistant at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University and as a clinical audiologist at Kastamonu State Hospital. Fluent in Turkish and English, with elementary proficiency in Dutch, he is committed to advancing vestibular science and audiology through clinical research, education, and innovation.
Ayberk Aydın Tunç is an audiology specialist and researcher specializing in neuro-otology and auditory neuroscience. He completed his undergraduate and graduate education in audiology. His research interests focus on vertigo/dizziness,tinnitus, auditory processing, neuromodulation techniques, and the integration of digital technologies into hearing healthcare.
Currently, he is pursuing his Ph.D. in ORL-HNS (Neuro-Otology) at Semmelweis University in Budapest.