title: Grey matter connectivity within and between auditory, language and visual systems in prelingually deaf adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous studies have shown brain reorganizations after early deprivation of auditory sensory. However, changes of grey matter connectivity have not been investigated in prelingually deaf adolescents yet. In the present study, we aimed to investigate changes of grey matter connectivity within and between auditory, language and visual systems in prelingually deaf adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  We recruited 16 prelingually deaf adolescents and 16 age-and gender-matched normal controls, and extracted the grey matter volume as the structural characteristic from 14 regions of interest involved in auditory, language or visual processing to investigate the changes of grey matter connectivity within and between auditory, language and visual systems. Sparse inverse covariance estimation (SICE) was utilized to construct grey matter connectivity between these brain regions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results show that prelingually deaf adolescents present weaker grey matter connectivity within auditory and visual systems, and connectivity between language and visual systems declined. Notably, significantly increased brain connectivity was found between auditory and visual systems in prelingually deaf adolescents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicate "cross-modal" plasticity after deprivation of the auditory input in prelingually deaf adolescents, especially between auditory and visual systems. Besides, auditory deprivation and visual deficits might affect the connectivity pattern within language and visual systems in prelingually deaf adolescents.
authors.affiliation: College of Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China.|State Key Laboratory of Management and Control for Complex Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory of Computational Intelligence and Intelligent System, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wenjing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jianhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhenchang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhaohui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Junfang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xian
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Management and Control for Complex Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Huiguang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D003638:Deafness / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Brain plasticity; grey matter connectivity; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); prelingually deaf adolescents; sparse inverse covariance estimation (SICE)