Deroche Mickael L D, Wolfe Jace, Neumann Sara, Manning Jacy, Hanna Lindsay, Towler Will, Wilson Caleb, Bien Alexander G, Miller Sharon, Schafer Erin, Gemignani Jessica, Alemi Razieh, Muthuraman Muthuraman, Koirala Nabin, Gracco Vincent L
Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H4B 1R6.
Hearts for Hearing Foundation, Oklahoma City, OK 73120, USA.
Brain Commun. 2024 May 21;6(3):fcae175. doi: 10.1093/braincomms/fcae175. eCollection 2024.
Over the first years of life, the brain undergoes substantial organization in response to environmental stimulation. In a silent world, it may promote vision by (i) recruiting resources from the auditory cortex and (ii) making the visual cortex more efficient. It is unclear when such changes occur and how adaptive they are, questions that children with cochlear implants can help address. Here, we examined 7-18 years old children: 50 had cochlear implants, with delayed or age-appropriate language abilities, and 25 had typical hearing and language. High-density electroencephalography and functional near-infrared spectroscopy were used to evaluate cortical responses to a low-level visual task. Evidence for a 'weaker visual cortex response' and 'less synchronized or less inhibitory activity of auditory association areas' in the implanted children with language delays suggests that cross-modal reorganization can be maladaptive and does not necessarily strengthen the dominant visual sense.
在生命的最初几年里，大脑会根据环境刺激进行大量的组织调整。在一个无声的世界里，它可能通过以下方式促进视觉功能：（i）从听觉皮层招募资源，（ii）提高视觉皮层的效率。目前尚不清楚这些变化何时发生以及它们的适应性如何，而接受人工耳蜗植入的儿童可以帮助回答这些问题。在这里，我们研究了7至18岁的儿童：50名儿童接受了人工耳蜗植入，其语言能力延迟或与年龄相符，25名儿童听力和语言正常。使用高密度脑电图和功能性近红外光谱来评估皮层对低水平视觉任务的反应。在语言发育迟缓的植入儿童中，存在“视觉皮层反应较弱”和“听觉联合区同步性较低或抑制性活动较少”的证据，这表明跨模态重组可能是适应不良的，并不一定会增强占主导地位的视觉感知。
