Li Jiahong, Xiong Binbin, Chen Suijun, Li Jing, Luo Yingting, Chen Yu-Chen, Song Jae-Jin, Zhao Fei, Yang Jing, Li Chenlong, Zheng Yiqing, Gui Lan, Feng Huanling, Chen Weirong, Cai Yuexin, Chen Wan
Department of Otolaryngology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510120, China.
Institute of Hearing and Speech-Language Science, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province 510120, China.
Brain Commun. 2025 Apr 17;7(2):fcaf150. doi: 10.1093/braincomms/fcaf150. eCollection 2025.
This research examines how congenital visual or hearing impairment reshapes brain function using EEG. The study involved 40 children with congenital visual impairment, 40 with hearing impairment and 42 age and gender-matched normal children as controls. The investigation included assessments of visual and auditory abilities, along with comprehensive EEG evaluations. Techniques such as source localization, functional connectivity and cross-frequency coupling were used to analyse variations in brain activity. Machine learning methods, specifically support vector machines, were utilized to identify key reshaping characteristics associated with congenital impairments. Results showed reduced activation in the visual cortex for visually impaired children and decreased activation in the auditory cortex for hearing-impaired children compared with the control group. Both impairment groups demonstrated significant reductions in functional connectivity across various brain regions, including the visual and auditory cortices, insula, parahippocampal gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus and frontal cortex. The machine learning model highlighted aberrant connectivity between the visual/auditory cortex and the right insula, the medial prefrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the visual and auditory cortex in children with these impairments in the alpha frequency band. Spatially similar patterns of cross-frequency coupling of rhythmic activity were also observed. The study concludes that congenital visual and hearing impairments significantly impact brain development, identifying distinct functional characteristics and shared reshaping patterns. The consistent presence of dysrhythmic activity and reduced functional connectivity suggest the existence of a triple network anomaly.
本研究使用脑电图（EEG）来探究先天性视觉或听力障碍如何重塑大脑功能。该研究纳入了40名先天性视力障碍儿童、40名听力障碍儿童以及42名年龄和性别匹配的正常儿童作为对照组。调查内容包括视觉和听觉能力评估以及全面的脑电图评估。使用源定位、功能连接和交叉频率耦合等技术来分析大脑活动的变化。运用机器学习方法，特别是支持向量机，来识别与先天性障碍相关的关键重塑特征。结果显示，与对照组相比，视力障碍儿童的视觉皮层激活减少，听力障碍儿童的听觉皮层激活减少。两个障碍组在包括视觉和听觉皮层、岛叶、海马旁回、后扣带回和额叶皮层在内的各个脑区的功能连接均显著减少。机器学习模型突出了这些障碍儿童在阿尔法频段中视觉/听觉皮层与右侧岛叶、内侧前额叶皮层和背外侧前额叶皮层以及视觉和听觉皮层之间的异常连接。还观察到了节律性活动的交叉频率耦合在空间上的相似模式。该研究得出结论，先天性视觉和听力障碍会显著影响大脑发育，确定了不同的功能特征和共同的重塑模式。节律异常活动和功能连接减少的持续存在表明存在三重网络异常。
