Anderson et al (2013) note that "neural slowing" due to aging (which impacts cognitive, sensory, and motor systems) is reversible with training. The authors report their results based on a control group (n=32) and an experimental group (i.e., auditory training group, n=35) with a total mean age (both groups) of 63 years.

The Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health (2013) reported a cohort study (Fisher et al, 2013) of 4,926 people from Iceland, of people aged 67 years and older (43 percent male). Each participant completed visual and hearing assessments between 2002 and 2006, and participants were followed (for mortality) through 2009 (median follow-up per participant was 5.3 years). Results from hearing and vision assessments were correlated with overall mortality rates from all causes, and from cardio-vascular diseases (CVD).

Pichora-Fuller et al (2013) report a strong and well established connection between hearing loss and cognitive impairment in old age. Hearing loss is the third most common chronic health condition in the United States and it is experienced by half the population by age 65 years and 90 percent of the population by age 80 years. The authors report audiologists need to consider cognitive health due to the ever increasing population of older people in the United States.  

Davalos-Bichara and Agrawal (2014) evaluated 50 community-dwelling healthy, older adults (mean age 77 years, range 70 to 95 years, approximately half male, half female) to document the performance of older adults on commonly administered vestibular tests. The Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI, Jacobson & Newman,1990) was used to measure self-perceived functional impairment. Tests of vestibular function included Spontaneous and Head Shaking Nystagmus, Head Impulse Test (HIT), Subjective Visual Vertical (aka "Bucket Test") and the Modified Romberg Test (MRT).