Pre-operative Brain Imaging Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Helps Predict Cochlear Implant Outcome in Deaf Adults

AbstractCurrently, it is not possible to accurately predict how well a deaf individual will be able to understand speech when hearing is (re)introduced via a cochlear implant. Differences in brain organisation following deafness are thought to contribute to variability in speech understanding with a cochlear implant and may offer unique insights that could help to more reliably predict outcomes. An emerging optical neuroimaging technique, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), was used to determine whether a pre-operative measure of brain activation could explain variability in cochlear implant (CI) outcomes and offer additional prognostic value above that provided by known clinical characteristics. Cross-modal activation to visual speech was measured in bilateral superior temporal cortex of pre- and post-lingually deaf adults before cochlear implantation. Behavioural measures of auditory speech understanding were obtained in the same individuals following 6  months of cochlear implant use. The results showed that stronger pre-operative cross-modal activation of auditory brain regions by visual speech was predictive of poorer auditory speech understanding after implantation. Further investigation suggested that this relationship may have been driven pr imarily by the inclusion of, and group differences between, pre- and post-lingually deaf individuals. Nonetheless, pre-operative cortical imaging provided additional prognostic value above that of influential clinical...
Source: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology - Category: ENT & OMF Source Type: research