UM Opens New Research Lab To Study Effects Of Hearing Loss, Aging

A new research laboratory recently opened on the University of Montana campus to study the connection between hearing loss and brain function as people age.

The Brain, Ear, and Aging Research (BEAR) Lab launched this fall in the basement of Curry Health Center, where the School of Speech, Language, Hearing and Occupational Sciences is housed.

Dr. Anoop Basavanahalli Jagadeesh, director of the BEAR Lab and an assistant professor, said he needed a dedicated space to teach students and expand his research. The BEAR Lab is fully equipped with two sound-treated suits, where Anoop and his students will conduct hearing, electrophysiological and cognitive tests to explore how hearing and brain function interact throughout the aging process.

Anoop’s research is focused on how aging and hearing loss affects people’s brain function and their mental health. Hearing loss affects about 60 percent of people above age 70 across the globe, Anoop said, and hearing loss often makes people feel disconnected from conversations and society at large. He wants to better understand the results of that isolation.

“My line of research is on how as you grow older what are the consequences of that in terms of hearing and brain function and psychological well-being,” Anoop said. “When you have aging and hearing loss combine that leads to cognition problems, which all leads to someone having a lower psychological well-being.”

Jadan Garner, a senior from Great Falls studying communicative sciences and disorders, is one of four undergraduate student assistants in the BEAR Lab. Anoop invited her to work in the lab after she took one of his courses in aural rehabilitation.

“I’m so grateful for it,” Garner said. “It’s really wonderful to get that hands-on experience and get to see the textbook in action.”

Garner, who will graduate this week at UM’s fall commencement, works as a rehabilitation technician at Community Medical Center in