Cross-modal plasticity and cochlear implants

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 409; no. 6817; pp. 149 - 150
• Main Authors: DONG SOO LEE, JAE SUNG LEE, SEUNG HA OH, SEOK-KI KIM, KIM, Jeung-Whoon, CHUNG, June-Key, LEE, Myung Chul, CHONG SUN KIM
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing 11.01.2001
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age of Onset; Auditory Cortex - metabolism; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child, Preschool; Cochlear Implants; Ear, auditive nerve, cochleovestibular tract, facial nerve: diseases, semeiology; Female; Humans; Language Development; Male; Medical sciences; Neuronal Plasticity; Non tumoral diseases; Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology; Tomography, Emission-Computed; Human; Visual cortex; Implant; Treatment efficiency; Interaction; Auditory disorder; Instrumentation therapy; Stimulation; Metabolism; Auditory cortex; Treatment; Plasticity; Cochlea; ENT disease; Perception hearing loss; Prelingual stage
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/35051653

Hearing in profoundly deaf people can be helped by inserting an implant into the inner ear to stimulate the cochlear nerve. This also boosts the low metabolic activity of the auditory cortex, the region of the brain normally used for hearing. Other sensory modalities, such as sign language, can also activate the auditory cortex, a phenomenon known as cross-modal plasticity. Here we show that when metabolism in the auditory cortex of prelingually deaf children (whose hearing was lost before they learned to talk) has been restored by cross-modal plasticity, the auditory cortex can no longer respond to signals from a cochlear implant installed afterwards. Neural substrates in the auditory cortex might therefore be routed permanently to other cognitive processes in prelingually deaf patients.