Dementia slows down the processing in the brain of inputs from all senses. It is most obvious in the case of hearing because that is where we pay most attention, expecting responses. Just try imagining what it may be like if instead of processing each word you hear immediately, it took just a half a second. By the end of a short sentence you’d be a few seconds behind and meaning would be jumbled / lost. The answer to your question, then is yes. Normally we associate hearing / sight loss with defects in the ears / eyes. In dementia patients they can be perfect but the loss of brain function can give a similar impression.

My husband is deaf in one ear but I figured out that it's not that he can't hear me, it's that he can't process the words.He will keep asking me what I said or he'll say something completely different that what I said. Just like he can't follow more that 1 instruction at a time. If I say can you empty the trash and put it in the can behind the workshop, he will head for the door. The only word he processed was workshop.He doesn't know why he's going there but he's going. I have to break it down so he understands by asking him to do one thing at a time. Even then he may have difficulty because maybe he has forgotten what or where the trash can is. So it's not that he can't hear you, it's because he can't process what you are saying.

So I thought the same that my husband wasn’t hearing me but what I think is happening is that he has trouble understanding the words I’m saying. He hears many sounds clear enough but he has trouble with language and also the direction a sound is coming from.

I was afraid this was happening to my hearing impaired husband and now this confirms it. I thought he was having trouble processing what he heard because the hearing aides seem to work and the tv is quite loud, yet he still asks me what was said. Knowing this will help me to be more patient.

Eva I agree with you. My husband doesn’t understand the Tv shows anymore. I have a soft voice but he can’t understand even if I am looking straight at him. Sad