Press release, EurekAlert, July 23, 2007
Link to the article in the July 18 Journal of Neuroscience as cited:
Evidence of a Tonotopic Organization of the Auditory Cortex in Cochlear Implant Users -- Guiraud et al. 27 (29): 7838 -- Journal of Neuroscience
------------------------------
Brain's "hearing center" may reorganize after implant of Cochlear device
Findings may help in evaluating benefits
WASHINGTON, DC July 23, 2007 – Cochlear implants—electronic devices inserted
surgically in the ear to allow deaf people to hear—may restore normal
auditory pathways in the brain even after many years of deafness.
The results imply that the brain can reorganize sound processing centers or
press into service latent ones based on sound stimulation. Jeanne Guiraud,
PhD, and colleagues at the University of Lyon, Edouard Herriot University
Hospital, and Advanced Bionics, a firm that makes cochlear implants, worked
with deaf subjects from 16 to 74 years old and found that younger subjects
and those with a shorter history of deafness showed changes that mirrored
patterns in people with normal hearing more closely. The results were
published in the July 18 Journal of Neuroscience.
"The results imply a restoration to some extent of the normal organization
through the use of the cochlear implant,” says Manuel Don, PhD, of the House
Ear Institute in Los Angeles. “They also claim to find ties between the
degree of restored organization and a hearing task. Such ties are of
enormous importance in evaluating cochlear implant benefits.” Don was not
involved in this study.
Guiraud and her team studied 13 profoundly deaf adults who had received
cochlear implants, on average, eight months before the study. Electrical
stimulation to the ear allowed the team to locate where in the brain’s
auditory cortex various frequencies were processed and come up with a map
for these tones. Their results demonstrated that in people who had cochlear
implants for at least three months, normal frequency organization was
somewhat restored.
"Our results strongly suggest that the recipient’s auditory cortex presents
a tonotopic organization that resembles the frequency maps of normal-hearing
subjects,” says Guiraud.
In the future, the team hopes to determine in detail the ways in which these
maps may change as a result of cochlear implants by studying subjects
immediately following implant surgery.
###
The work was a supported by a grant from Advanced Bionics Europe.
The Journal of Neuroscience is published by the Society for Neuroscience, an
organization of more than 36,500 basic scientists and clinicians who study
the brain and nervous system. Guiraud can be reached at
jeanne_guiraud@hotmail.com
Link to the article in the July 18 Journal of Neuroscience as cited:
Evidence of a Tonotopic Organization of the Auditory Cortex in Cochlear Implant Users -- Guiraud et al. 27 (29): 7838 -- Journal of Neuroscience
------------------------------
Brain's "hearing center" may reorganize after implant of Cochlear device
Findings may help in evaluating benefits
WASHINGTON, DC July 23, 2007 – Cochlear implants—electronic devices inserted
surgically in the ear to allow deaf people to hear—may restore normal
auditory pathways in the brain even after many years of deafness.
The results imply that the brain can reorganize sound processing centers or
press into service latent ones based on sound stimulation. Jeanne Guiraud,
PhD, and colleagues at the University of Lyon, Edouard Herriot University
Hospital, and Advanced Bionics, a firm that makes cochlear implants, worked
with deaf subjects from 16 to 74 years old and found that younger subjects
and those with a shorter history of deafness showed changes that mirrored
patterns in people with normal hearing more closely. The results were
published in the July 18 Journal of Neuroscience.
"The results imply a restoration to some extent of the normal organization
through the use of the cochlear implant,” says Manuel Don, PhD, of the House
Ear Institute in Los Angeles. “They also claim to find ties between the
degree of restored organization and a hearing task. Such ties are of
enormous importance in evaluating cochlear implant benefits.” Don was not
involved in this study.
Guiraud and her team studied 13 profoundly deaf adults who had received
cochlear implants, on average, eight months before the study. Electrical
stimulation to the ear allowed the team to locate where in the brain’s
auditory cortex various frequencies were processed and come up with a map
for these tones. Their results demonstrated that in people who had cochlear
implants for at least three months, normal frequency organization was
somewhat restored.
"Our results strongly suggest that the recipient’s auditory cortex presents
a tonotopic organization that resembles the frequency maps of normal-hearing
subjects,” says Guiraud.
In the future, the team hopes to determine in detail the ways in which these
maps may change as a result of cochlear implants by studying subjects
immediately following implant surgery.
###
The work was a supported by a grant from Advanced Bionics Europe.
The Journal of Neuroscience is published by the Society for Neuroscience, an
organization of more than 36,500 basic scientists and clinicians who study
the brain and nervous system. Guiraud can be reached at
jeanne_guiraud@hotmail.com
