title: Topographical functional connectivity patterns exist in the congenitally, prelingually deaf.
abstract: Congenital deafness causes large changes in the auditory cortex structure and function, such that without early childhood cochlear-implant, profoundly deaf children do not develop intact, high-level, auditory functions. But how is auditory cortex organization affected by congenital, prelingual, and long standing deafness? Does the large-scale topographical organization of the auditory cortex develop in people deaf from birth? And is it retained despite cross-modal plasticity? We identified, using fMRI, topographic tonotopy-based functional connectivity (FC) structure in humans in the core auditory cortex, its extending tonotopic gradients in the belt and even beyond that. These regions show similar FC structure in the congenitally deaf throughout the auditory cortex, including in the language areas. The topographic FC pattern can be identified reliably in the vast majority of the deaf, at the single subject level, despite the absence of hearing-aid use and poor oral language skills. These findings suggest that large-scale tonotopic-based FC does not require sensory experience to develop, and is retained despite life-long auditory deprivation and cross-modal plasticity. Furthermore, as the topographic FC is retained to varying degrees among the deaf subjects, it may serve to predict the potential for auditory rehabilitation using cochlear implants in individual subjects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Ella
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Striem-Amit
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra 3001-802, Portugal.|Proaction Laboratory, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra 3001-802, Portugal.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Almeida
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Belledonne
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning &IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Quanjing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning &IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Yuxing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning &IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Zaizhu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.|Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, 38068, Rovereto, Italy.
authors.forename: Alfonso
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Caramazza
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning &IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Yanchao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001306:Auditory Pathways; D001931:Brain Mapping; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003142:Communication; D003638:Deafness / Q000151:congenital* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult