title: Better Visuospatial Working Memory in Adults Who Report Profound Deafness Compared to Those With Normal or Poor Hearing: Data From the UK Biobank Resource.
abstract: Experimental work has shown better visuospatial working memory (VSWM) in profoundly deaf individuals compared to those with normal hearing. Other data, including the UK Biobank resource shows poorer VSWM in individuals with poorer hearing. Using the same database, the authors investigated VSWM in individuals who reported profound deafness. Included in this study were 112 participants who were profoundly deaf, 1310 with poor hearing and 74,635 with normal hearing. All participants performed a card-pair matching task as a test of VSWM. Although variance in VSWM performance was large among profoundly deaf participants, at group level it was superior to that of participants with both normal and poor hearing. VSWM in adults is related to hearing status but the association is not linear. Future study should investigate the mechanism behind enhanced VSWM in profoundly deaf adults.
authors.affiliation: 1Linnaeus Centre HEAD, Swedish Institute for Disability Research, Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden; 2National Acoustic Laboratories, Sydney, Australia; and 3Environmental Psychology, Faculty of Engineering and Sustainable Development, University of Gävle, Gävle, Sweden.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rudner
authors.forename: Gitte
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Keidser
authors.forename: Staffan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hygge
authors.forename: Jerker
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rönnberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003638:Deafness / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D065855:Spatial Processing; D006113:United Kingdom