Age-related hearing loss has been consistently related to lower gray matter volume, particularly in auditory cortex. The reason(s) for these observations are unclear. We examined the extent to which there were longitudinal changes in pure tone thresholds and brain morphology across ~2.5 years. Modest but significant cross-sectional associations between pure tone thresholds and auditory cortex gray matter were observed at each time point and there were significant longitudinal changes in each of these measures, but the changes in pure tone thresholds were not significantly related to changes in brain morphology. Unexpectedly, older adults with the most elevated thresholds at the first visit demonstrated the most pronounced expansion in ventricle size across the study. While replication of this observation is needed, it may indicate that older adults with elevated pure tone thresholds are are greater risk for more rapid brain aging.
