목적: Age-related hearing loss is strongly associated with an elevated risk of developing dementia as individuals age. Concurrently, research into transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) suggests its potential in modulating cognition and neuroplasticity through alterations in neuronal activity. In this study, we pursued two primary objectives. Firstly, we examined whether older adults with hearing loss encounter more significant challenges in processing working memory (WM) tasks compared to their counterparts with normal hearing. Next, we evaluated the potential benefits of taVNS as a therapeutic avenue in modulating WM load among older adults, both with and without prolonged hearing impairment (HI). 방법:A total of 56 participants aged over 60 years, including 20 individuals with HI and 36 typical hearing (TH) controls, were included in the study. We assessed WM capacity using the visual version of n-back tasks with varying the modality (verbal vs. visuo-spatial) and task complexity (1-back vs. 2-back). Employing a two-session, within- subject, randomized crossover, single-blind sham-controlled design, participants underwent both taVNS and sham stimulation on either the left or right side of the ear, with sessions spaced 7 days apart. 결과:Our results indicated that the HI group demonstrated notably lower performance than the TH group, particularly during the 2-back task with increased complexity (p<.001). Additionally, only the HI group exhibited significantly improved performance across the modality and complexity in the active taVNS condition compared to the sham condition (p=.016). 결론:The current study suggests that HI group benefits from taVNS, which induced improved performance on WM tasks. Despite both typical- and impaired-hearing older adults receiving taVNS under identical conditions, our findings emphasize significant effects when interventions are directed towards hearing-impaired populations potentially at risk of cognitive decline.