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The Physiology of Cochlear Presbycusis

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The Aging Auditory System

Part of the book series: Springer Handbook of Auditory Research ((SHAR,volume 34))

Abstract

The effects of pure aging on the physiology and morphology of the human peripheral auditory system are difficult to study given the variability inherent in genetics and the environment with which the system must cope. Environmental exposures accumulated over a lifetime often combine mild, continuous noise exposures occurring daily, with occasional punctate episodes of very high decibel trauma associated with loud music, power equipment, and small arms fire. Moreover, the human experience includes many drugs that often have unintended side effects on the auditory periphery. Some drugs have well-known ototoxic properties; others are more insidious, like the continuous high-level use of some narcotics. Noise and drug injuries tend to preferentially damage the hair cells in the cochlea.

Genetics must then respond to an individual’s environment, resulting in the very large variability present in the hearing capabilities of elderly humans. It is clear that animal models of age-related hearing loss are required to tease out the effects of aging alone from the effects of environment and genetics. Yet up until ∼25 years ago, much of the research in presbycusis was accomplished by using human temporal bones and clinical data (Bredberg 1968; Schuknecht 1974; Gates et al. 1990; Schuknecht and Gacek 1993). Only in the last 30 years or so have animal models been established where the environment, diet, and genetics are strictly controlled (Keithley and Feldman 1979, 1982; Henry 1982; Keithley et al. 1989; Mills et al. 1990; Hequembourg and Liberman 2001; Ohlemiller and Gagnon 2004; for reviews see Willott 1991; Frisina and Walton 2001, 2006; Gates and Mills 2005; Canlon, Illing, and Walton, Chapter 3). Animals raised under these controlled conditions nonetheless show age-related declines in auditory function, consistent with the notion that presbycusis includes effects unique to aging and is not just the result of the combined effects of noise and other ototoxic factors over a lifetime.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Judy Dubno, Hainan Lang, Jack Mills, Nancy Smythe, and Diana Vincent for their suggestions and encouragement. Studies reported here were supported by Grants R01 AG 14748 from the National Institute on Aging and P01 DC 00422 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health.

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  1. Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Avenue, MSC 550, 29425-5500, Charleston, SC 29425-5500, USA

    Richard A. Schmiedt

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Correspondence to Richard A. Schmiedt .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Hearing & Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, Lefrak Hall 0100 , College Park, 20742, U.S.A.

    Sandra Gordon-Salant

  2. Medical Center, University of Rochester, Elmwood Avenue 601, Rochester, 14642, U.S.A.

    Robert D. Frisina

  3. Dept. Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, 20742-4415, U.S.A.

    Arthur N. Popper

  4. Parmly Hearing Inst., Loyola University Chicago, N. Sheridan Rd. 6525, Chicago, 60626, U.S.A.

    Richard R. Fay

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Schmiedt, R.A. (2010). The Physiology of Cochlear Presbycusis. In: Gordon-Salant, S., Frisina, R., Popper, A., Fay, R. (eds) The Aging Auditory System. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 34. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0993-0_2

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