Neurocognitive Plasticity in Young Deaf Adults: Effects of Cochlear Implantation and Sign Language Exposure

根据NIDCD的最新数据，在中国出生的每1000名儿童中，约有2至3名 美国在出生时就有可测量的听力损失。对于这些孩子中的一些人来说，听力损失 意义深刻，可能会妨碍典型的口语习得。截至2012年，全国约有38,000名儿童 美国接受了人工耳蜗术(CI)。对于这些儿童中的许多人来说，植入物具有 允许接触口语。然而，关于口语，最引人注目的可能是什么 人工耳蜗术后的结果是可变性。了解这种可变性是第一步 在制定有效的干预措施以推动更多的儿童走向更成功的 结果。这里提出的这项研究将是第一批检查口语的大规模研究之一 在童年时接受植入物并现已登记的年轻聋人的语言结果 在纽约州罗切斯特的国家聋人技术学院(RIT/NTID)。其中大部分都是 学生天生就有严重的听力损失，他们在是否使用CI方面存在差异， 他们收到CI的年龄和他们主要的沟通方式。该项目旨在 青壮年聋人认知缺陷的非典型中枢听觉功能特征 发展，确定人工耳蜗术对那些认知障碍的矫正的影响 缺陷，并仔细研究沟通方式(手写和口语)对认知的影响 缺陷和口语结果。在480名年轻聋人的大样本中：(I)高密度脑电 将用于记录先天性深度耳聋对中枢听觉皮质的影响 通过记录皮层对听觉(CAEP)和视觉刺激(VEP)的反应来发育，以及 (2)领域--认知(顺序处理、执行功能)和语言的一般测量 一定会有结果的。将使用中介分析来确定它是否是非典型听觉 通过视觉最佳预测听觉脑区的皮质发育或跨模式招募 认知缺陷和随后的口语发展。然后我们将检验这一假设 CI结果的变异性的一个来源是植入年龄调节的程度 听觉皮质成熟，以弥补认知缺陷。最后，独特的年轻人样本位于 RIT/NTID，他们中的许多人在婴儿时期就学会了一种自然的手语，并戴上了人工耳蜗， 为研究早期接触美国手语(ASL)在 缓解序列处理和执行控制方面的缺陷，潜在地提高口语 结果。

According to the latest data from the NIDCD, approximately 2 to 3 out of every 1,000 children born in the United States have a measurable hearing loss at birth. For some of these children, that hearing loss is profound and can preclude typical acquisition of spoken language. As of 2012, around 38,000 children in the United States had received a cochlear implant (CI). For many of these children, the implant has permitted access to spoken language. However, what is perhaps most striking about spoken language outcomes following cochlear implantation is the variability. Understanding this variability is the first step in developing effective interventions to move a greater number of children towards a more successful outcome. The research proposed here will be one of the first large-scale studies to examine spoken language outcomes in young deaf adults who received their implants in childhood and are now enrolled at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (RIT/NTID) in Rochester NY. The majority of these students were born with profound hearing losses, and they vary in terms of whether or not they use a CI, the age at which they received a CI and their primary mode of communication. This project aims to characterize cognitive deficits in young deaf adults as a function of their atypical central auditory development, determine the impact of cochlear implantation on the remediation of those cognitive deficits, and carefully examine the impact of communication mode (signed versus spoken) on cognitive deficits and spoken language outcomes. In a large sample of 480 young deaf adults: (i) high-density EEG will be used to document the effect of congenital profound deafness on central auditory cortical development by recording cortical responses to both auditory (CAEPs) and visual stimuli (VEPs), and (ii) domain-general measures of cognitive (sequence processing, executive function) and language outcomes will be obtained. Mediation analyses will be used to determine whether it is atypical auditory cortical development or cross-modal recruitment of auditory brain areas by vision that best predicts cognitive deficits and subsequent spoken language development. We will then test the hypothesis that one source of variability in CI outcomes stems from the extent to which age of implantation modulates auditory cortical maturation to remediate cognitive deficits. Finally, the unique sample of young adults at RIT/NTID, many of whom learned a natural sign language in infancy and wear a cochlear implant, affords the possibility of examining the role of early exposure to American Sign Language (ASL) in mitigating deficits in sequence processing and executive control, potentially boosting spoken language outcomes.