Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, 100730, China; Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA, 94115, USA.
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA.
Neuroimage. 2020 Feb 15;207:116376. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116376. Epub 2019 Nov 19.
Single-sided deafness (SSD) or profound unilateral hearing loss is the condition where the transfer of acoustic information to the brain is restricted to one ear. SSD impairment is most evident under adverse acoustic environments with overlapping interference, which burdens cognitive resources. It is known that bilateral deafness induces cross-modal brain plasticity within visual cortical areas. Here we investigate whether similar cross-modal plasticity is observed in adult-onset SSD. In SSD patients (n = 29) and matched controls (n = 29) we estimated voxel level resting-state power and functional connectivity in the alpha band (8-12 Hz) from magnetoencephalography (MEG) data. We examined both global functional connectivity (mean functional connectivity of each voxel with the rest of the brain), and seeded functional connectivity of primary auditory cortices (A1), primary visual cortices (V1) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) of the default mode network (DMN). Power reduction was observed in left auditory cortex. Global functional connectivity showed reduction in frontal cortices and enhancement in visual cortex. Seeded functional connectivity of auditory cortices showed reduction in temporal, frontal and occipital regions, and enhancement in parietal cortex. Interestingly, seeded functional connectivity of visual cortices showed enhancement in visual cortices, inferior parietal lobe, post-central gyrus, and the precuneus, and reduction in auditory cortex. Seeded functional connectivity of PCC showed reduction in frontal cortical regions that are part of the DMN, attention, and working memory networks. Adult-onset SSD exhibited widespread cross-modal brain plasticity involving alterations in auditory, visual, attention, working memory and default mode networks.
单侧聋（SSD）或深度单侧听力损失是指大脑仅能从一侧耳朵接收声音信息的情况。SSD 损害在重叠干扰的不利声学环境中最为明显，这会给认知资源带来负担。众所周知，双侧耳聋会引起视觉皮质区域的跨模态大脑可塑性。在这里，我们研究了成年后 SSD 是否也会观察到类似的跨模态可塑性。在 SSD 患者（n=29）和匹配的对照组（n=29）中，我们从脑磁图（MEG）数据中估计了 alpha 频段（8-12 Hz）的体素水平静息状态功率和功能连接。我们同时检查了全局功能连接（每个体素与大脑其余部分的平均功能连接）和初级听觉皮层（A1）、初级视觉皮层（V1）和默认模式网络（DMN）的后扣带回皮层（PCC）的种子功能连接。观察到左听觉皮层的功率降低。全局功能连接显示额叶皮质减少，视觉皮质增强。听觉皮层的种子功能连接显示颞叶、额叶和枕叶区域减少，顶叶皮质增强。有趣的是，视觉皮层的种子功能连接显示视觉皮层、下顶叶、后中央回和楔前叶增强，听觉皮层减少。PCC 的种子功能连接显示 DMN、注意力和工作记忆网络的额叶皮质区域减少。成年后 SSD 表现出广泛的跨模态大脑可塑性，涉及听觉、视觉、注意力、工作记忆和默认模式网络的改变。
