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Updated: Jan 1, 2026
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Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
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Interhemispheric auditory connectivity requires normal access to sound in both ears during development.
Daniel A Smieja1, Benjamin T Dunkley2, Blake C Papsin3
1Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, The University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Neurosciences and Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Neuroimage
|December 16, 2019
Summary
Children with congenital deafness using bilateral cochlear implants show disrupted auditory brain networks. Bilateral input normally facilitates hearing but is impaired in these children, impacting spatial hearing development.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Audiology
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Congenital deafness and bilateral cochlear implantation (BCI) do not fully restore spatial hearing.
- Auditory brain network function in children with BCI requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate disruptions in auditory brain networks in children with congenital deafness receiving BCI.
- To compare brain network activity during unilateral and bilateral auditory stimulation between normal-hearing children and those with BCI.
Main Methods:
- Electroencephalography (EEG) recorded responses to unilateral and bilateral sound stimulation.
- Time Restricted Artifact and Coherent source Suppression (TRACS) beamformer estimated active cortical areas.
- Coherence analysis identified connected cortical areas and assessed inter-aural connectivity.
Main Results:
- Normal-hearing children showed enhanced auditory cortex connectivity with bilateral input.
- Children with BCI exhibited depressed coherence between auditory cortices during bilateral stimulation.
- BCI users displayed atypical auditory network connectivity, including frontal-occipital links, during bilateral input.
Conclusions:
- Bilateral auditory input normally facilitates brain networks, but this is disrupted in children with BCI.
- Disrupted bilateral processing in BCI may underlie deficits in spatial hearing.
- Interventions should address bilateral input processing to support auditory brain development in deaf children with BCI.
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