• Christiane Völter, Jan Peter Thomas, Walter Maetzler, Rainer Guthoff, Martin Grunwald, and Thomas Hummel.
• Hearing Competence Center, St. Elisabeth-Hospital, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Ruhr University of Bochum; Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, St.-Johannes-Hospital, Dortmund; Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kiel; Department of Ophthalmology, Düsseldorf University Hospital; Haptic Research Lab, Paul Flechsig Institute of Brain Research, Medical Faculty of the Universität Leipzig; Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden.
• Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2021 Jul 26; 118 (29-30): 512520512-520.

BackgroundThe senses serve as the crucial interface between the individual and the environment. They are subject to aging and disease processes.MethodsThis review is based on pertinent publications retrieved by a selective search in the Medline and Cochrane Library databases.ResultsApproximately 40% of persons aged 70 to 79 manifest dysfunction in at least one, and more than 25% in multiple senses. Sensory changes are accompanied by diverse comorbidities which depend on the particular sense(s) affected. The presence of sensory deficits is associated with an increased risk of developing dementia (OR: 1.49 [95% confidence interval: 1.12; 1.98] for dysfunction in a single sensory modality, 2.85 [1.88; 4.30] for dysfunction in three or more sensory modalities). The risk of developing depressive symptoms is elevated as well (OR 3.36 [2.28; 4.96]). The individual's ability to cope with the demands of everyday life is largely determined by the ability to carry out multisensory integration, in which the perceptions of the different senses are bound together. This function itself is subject to age-related changes that can be either adaptive or maladaptive; it can, therefore, serve as an indicator for pathological aging processes.ConclusionSensory dysfunction in old age should be detected as early as possible. This implies the need for close collaboration of all of the involved disciplines. It would be desirable to develop sensory screening tests as well as a procedure for testing multisensory integration in routine clinical practice.

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