Characterizing the Impact of Auditory Experience on Language, Cognitive, and Neural Development in Children

项目摘要/摘要：研究项目(3) 描述听觉体验的影响 论儿童语言、认知和神经发展 众所周知，听力受损的儿童存在语言和学习缺陷的风险。听力损失 众所周知，它还会影响工作记忆等认知指标，与语言能力呈正相关 拥有这些更高层次的认知技能。然而，听力损失儿童的延迟并不是普遍存在的；一些 明显落后于听力正常的儿童(CNH)，而其他人的表现与CNH相似。近期工作 戴助听器的轻度至重度听力损失儿童(即听力障碍儿童(CHH)) (HAS)表明语言延迟的严重程度与听觉剂量有关，听觉剂量是听觉的一个指标 体验由HA的可听性定义，或HA改善语音获取的程度，以及 房委会的用途。综上所述，语言、认知功能和听觉体验似乎紧密相连，而且 这些因素的结合很可能解释了CHH预后的大部分差异。然而，还有 目前还没有一个整体框架来捕捉这些关系。很难探究两者之间的相互作用 使用行为测试的语言和认知，因为它们依赖于端点度量，无法评估认知 因此，对中枢神经机制的研究是至关重要的。拟议中的项目 将提供有关听觉体验对认知、语言和神经功能的影响的关键新数据 孩子们。我们开创性的初步工作表明，在高级认知过程中，神经动力学发生了变化 相对于CNH，在CHH中的处理，并且这些神经像差与 英语运用能力和语言能力。在本研究中，我们将探索听觉体验、 使用创新的多模式方法进行语言、语言和认知的学习。具体地说，我们将招募一大批 CHH和人口统计学上匹配的CNH和ALL将在VERAIL期间接受脑磁图成像 以及非语言认知任务、结构核磁共振，以及一系列神经心理和听力测试。在AIM 1，我们将确定CHH和CHH在言语和非言语认知过程中的行为和神经生理学上的差异 CNH.我们推测，CHH在言语过程中会在额顶语言区域表现出改变的神经活动 认知任务，而执行功能和记忆网络在非语言认知任务中将是非典型的。 在目标2中，我们将确定哪些高级认知加工的神经标记可以预测语言能力， 以及CHH中语言和神经功能之间的关系是如何改变的。我们假设神经 非语言认知过程中的活动将预测语言功能超过语言的神经标记物 认知加工。在目标3中，我们将阐明听觉剂量对语言、认知和神经的影响 在CHH中的作用。我们假设听觉剂量将在行为结果和行为之间的关系中起中介作用 慢性肝炎的神经动力学。这项研究将提供直接的生理学证据，将语言发展和 在听力损失的背景下进行更高层次的认知，这将导致更知情的、个性化的治疗 CHH的治疗方法。

Project Summary/Abstract: Research Project (3) Characterizing the Impact of Auditory Experience on Language, Cognitive, and Neural Development in Children It is well-established that children with hearing loss are at risk for language and academic deficits. Hearing loss is also known to impact cognitive measures such as working memory, and language ability positively correlates with these higher-order cognitive skills. However, delays in children with hearing loss are not universal; some fall significantly behind children with normal hearing (CNH), while others perform similarly to CNH. Recent work in children with mild-to-severe hearing loss (i.e., children who are hard-of-hearing (CHH)) who wear hearing aids (HAs) suggests that the severity of language delays correlates with auditory dosage, an index of auditory experience defined by HA audibility, or the degree to which a HA improves access to speech, and the amount of HA use. Taken together, language, cognitive function, and auditory experience appear to be tightly linked, and a combination of these factors likely explains much of the variability in outcomes in CHH. However, there is currently no overall framework that captures these relationships. It is difficult to probe the interactions between language and cognition using behavioral tests, as they rely on end-point metrics and cannot evaluate cognitive processing in real-time; thus, an investigation of the central neural mechanisms is crucial. The proposed project will provide pivotal new data on the impact of auditory experience on cognitive, language, and neural function in children. Our groundbreaking preliminary work has shown altered neural dynamics during higher-order cognitive processing in CHH relative to CNH, and that these neural aberrations are significantly linked with the amount of HA use and language ability. In the current study, we will probe the interactions between auditory experience, language, and cognition using an innovative multimodal approach. Specifically, we will enroll a large cohort of CHH and demographically matched CNH and all will undergo magnetoencephalographic imaging during verbal and nonverbal cognitive tasks, structural MRI, and a battery of neuropsychological and audiometric tests. In Aim 1, we will identify differences in behavior and neurophysiology during verbal and nonverbal cognition in CHH and CNH. We posit that CHH will exhibit altered neural activity in fronto-parietal language regions during verbal cognitive tasks, while executive function and memory networks will be atypical during nonverbal cognitive tasks. In Aim 2, we will determine which neural markers of higher-order cognitive processing predict language ability, and how the relationships between language and neural function are altered in CHH. We hypothesize that neural activity during nonverbal cognition will predict language function above and beyond neural markers of verbal cognitive processing. In Aim 3, we will clarify the impact of auditory dosage on language, cognitive, and neural function in CHH. We posit that auditory dosage will mediate the relationships between behavioral outcomes and neural dynamics in CHH. This study will provide direct physiological evidence linking language development and higher-order cognition in the context of hearing loss, which will lead to better-informed, individualized therapeutic approaches for CHH.