Although the tonotopic organisation of the human primary auditory cortex (PAC) has already been studied, the question how its responses are affected in sensorineural hearing loss remains open. Twenty six patients (aged 38.1 ± 9.1 years; 12 men) with symmetrical sloping sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and 32 age- and gender-matched controls (NH) participated in an fMRI study using a sparse protocol. The stimuli were binaural 8s complex tones with central frequencies of 400 Hz, 800 Hz, 1600 Hz, 3200 Hz, or 6400 Hz, presented at 80 dB(C). In NH responses to all frequency ranges were found in bilateral auditory cortices. The outcomes of a winnermap approach, showing a relative arrangement of active frequency-specific areas, was in line with the existing literature and revealed a V-shape high-frequency gradient surrounding areas that responded to low frequencies in the auditory cortex. In SNHL frequency-specific auditory cortex responses were observed only for sounds from 400 Hz to 1600 Hz, due to the severe or profound hearing loss in higher frequency ranges. Using a stringent statistical threshold (p < 0.05; FWE) significant differences between NH and SNHL were only revealed for mid and high-frequency sounds. At a more lenient statistical threshold (p < 0.001, FDRc), however, the size of activation induced by 400 Hz in PAC was found statistically larger in patients with a prelingual, as compared to a postlingual onset of hearing loss. In addition, this low-frequency range was more extensively represented in the auditory cortex when outcomes obtained in all patients were contrasted with those revealed in normal hearing individuals (although statistically significant only for the secondary auditory cortex). The outcomes of the study suggest preserved patterns of large-scale tonotopic organisation in SNHL which can be further refined following auditory experience, especially when the hearing loss occurs prelingually. SNHL can induce both enlargement and reduction of the extent of responses in the topically organized auditory cortex.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2017.09.012DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

auditory cortex
16
hearing loss
16
sensorineural hearing
12
tonotopic organisation
8
sloping sensorineural
8
frequency ranges
8
auditory
5
organisation auditory
4
cortex
4
cortex sloping
4

Similar Publications

Background And Hypothesis: We have reported previously a reduction in superior temporal gyrus (STG) activation and in auditory verbal hallucinations (AHs) after real-time fMRI neurofeedback (NFB) in schizophrenia patients with AHs.

Study Design: With this randomized, participant-blinded, sham-controlled trial, we expanded our previous results. Specifically, we examined neurofeedback effects from the STG, an area associated with auditory hallucinations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Listeners with hearing loss have trouble following a conversation in multitalker environments. While modern hearing aids can generally amplify speech, these devices are unable to tune into a target speaker without first knowing to which speaker a user aims to attend. Brain-controlled hearing aids have been proposed using auditory attention decoding (AAD) methods, but current methods use the same model to compare the speech stimulus and neural response, regardless of the dynamic overlap between talkers which is known to influence neural encoding.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Developmental maturation of millimeter-scale functional networks across brain areas.

Cereb Cortex

January 2025

Optical Imaging and Brain Sciences Medical Discovery Team, Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, 2021 6th St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States.

Processing sensory information, generating perceptions, and shaping behavior engages neural networks in brain areas with highly varied representations, ranging from unimodal sensory cortices to higher-order association areas. In early development, these areas share a common distributed and modular functional organization, but it is not known whether this undergoes a common developmental trajectory, or whether such organization persists only in some brain areas. Here, we examine the development of network organization across diverse cortical regions in ferrets using in vivo wide field calcium imaging of spontaneous activity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

High definition transcranial direct current stimulation as an intervention for cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's dementia: A randomized controlled trial.

J Prev Alzheimers Dis

February 2025

Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA; Department of Neurology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA; School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA.

Background: Recent disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer's disease show promise to slow cognitive decline, but show no efficacy towards reducing symptoms already manifested.

Objectives: To investigate the efficacy of a novel noninvasive brain stimulation technique in modulating cognitive functioning in Alzheimer's dementia (AD).

Design: Pilot, randomized, double-blind, parallel, sham-controlled study SETTING: Clinical research site at UT Southwestern Medical Center PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-five participants with clinical diagnoses of AD were enrolled from cognition specialty clinics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The brain faces the challenging task of preserving a consistent portrayal of the external world in the face of disruptive sensory inputs. What alterations occur in sensory representation amidst noise, and how does brain activity adapt to it? Although it has previously been shown that background white noise (WN) decreases responses to salient sounds, a mechanistic understanding of the brain processes responsible for such changes is lacking. We investigated the effect of background WN on neuronal spiking activity, membrane potential, and network oscillations in the mouse central auditory system.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!