Department of Otolaryngology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, People's Republic of China.
Neuroimage Clin. 2021;32:102819. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102819. Epub 2021 Sep 11.
Neuroimaging studies have shown marked alterations in brain function after auditory deprivation, with these alterations mainly caused by sensorineural hearing loss. To date, however, little is known about the patterns of functional brain reorganization in conductive hearing loss (CHL). The effects of congenital unilateral CHL on human brain were assessed by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging in 24 patients with unilateral microtia (UM) and 25 healthy controls. Focal brain function and seed-based functional connectivity were analyzed to characterize spontaneous activity and network changes in UM. Patients with UM showed common alterations in focal brain activities in the left inferior temporal gyrus across different measurements, with these alterations significantly associated with the duration of hearing loss. Additionally, focal brain activities were decreased in the auditory system and increased in the visual system, with a disassociated pattern shown in the default-mode system. Using the left inferior temporal gyrus as the seed region, patients with UM showed lower connectivity with the default-mode system and right visual regions but higher connectivity with the left frontoparietal regions when compared with controls. These results indicate that congenital partial hearing deprivation, despite normal bone conduction hearing, can induce widespread reorganizations that continue into adolescence and adulthood.
神经影像学研究表明，听觉剥夺后大脑功能会发生明显改变，这些改变主要由感觉神经性听力损失引起。然而，目前对于传导性听力损失（CHL）的功能性脑重组模式知之甚少。通过对 24 例单侧小耳畸形（UM）患者和 25 名健康对照者进行静息态功能磁共振成像，评估先天性单侧 CHL 对人类大脑的影响。分析局部脑功能和基于种子的功能连接，以描述 UM 中的自发性活动和网络变化。UM 患者在不同测量中均表现出左颞下回局部脑活动的常见改变，这些改变与听力损失的持续时间显著相关。此外，听觉系统的局部脑活动减少，视觉系统的局部脑活动增加，默认模式系统显示出分离的模式。以左颞下回为种子区域，与对照组相比，UM 患者与默认模式系统和右侧视觉区域的连接降低，而与左侧额顶叶区域的连接增加。这些结果表明，尽管骨导听力正常，但先天性部分听力剥夺仍可导致广泛的重组，这些重组会持续到青少年和成年期。
