MISSOULA — 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 affect people’s brain function and their mental health. Hearing loss affects about 60% 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 graduated last week at UM’s Fall Commencement, works as a rehabilitation technician at Community Medical Center in Missoula, and has interest in a career helping elderly people with speech therapy.
“I really want to work with the adult population, specifically with more elderly people,” Garner said. “That’s also why this BEAR Lab was so appealing to me, because we look at how hearing ages. This gives me a neat perspective on that.”
Garner and the other undergraduate student assistants have spent the fall semester setting up the BEAR Lab and testing the equipment on each other. Starting next year, Anoop plans to bring in real patients to the lab.
Anoop intends to partner with the Rocky Mountain Ear, Nose and Throat Center to have their patients visit the BEAR Lab for testing. He is also partnering with UM’s physical therapy program to test patients who suffered concussions to see how their hearing and balance is affected.
“In individuals with concussions, there is a strong possibility that both hearing and balance mechanisms are affected due to their physical closeness and shared neural connections,” Anoop said.
Anoop earned a bachelor’s degree in speech and hearing and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in audiology from the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing in Mysuru, India. He conducted postdoctoral research at Northwestern University before joining UM in July 2024.
He found his passion for audiology on his second day of college in India, where he met with a child who could not speak. He discovered the child had hearing problems that lead to an inability to talk.
“That triggered my interest,” Anoop said. “Someone was testing a child who could not speak at all. I was curious why that was happening. It turns out a child who cannot hear cannot speak. That stuck with me.”
Anoop is happy to share his expertise with the UM community as the only dedicated audiology professor in UM’s speech language pathology program. He’s also enjoyed his time in Montana, which has been a much different experience than his upbringing in India.
“I didn’t know what to expect when I came to Montana because I come from a country where my city’s population is more than the whole state of Montana,” Anoop said. “I had no expectations and no idea how Montana would be. The people here have been extraordinary.”
