Changes of central neuronal activity in individuals with single-sided deafness after cochlear implantation

• Applicant: Dr. Iva Speck
• Subject Area: Otolaryngology, Phoniatrics and Audiology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 493873784

Hearing impairment is a widespread disease that affects approximately 5% of the world’s population and creates an annual cost of ca. 750 billion dollars worldwide. The limitations of people with single-sided deafness are commonly underestimated. Reduced speech recognition in noise, limited localization of sound sources, and in-creased listening effort can cause exhaustion, frustration, and social isolation. A cochlear implant (CI) can restore binaural hearing and improve audiological parameters. However, the results obtained with CIs differ considerably. Clinical and audiological parameters have proven to be of limited predictive value. Reliable predictors of success after implantation are essential because of the invasiveness and high costs of CIs. Neural activity in the central auditory cortex might serve as such a predictor. In previous studies, our research group has revealed that single-sided deafness changes neural activity in the inferior colliculus and auditory cortex. The absence of auditory input may cause cross-modal plasticity. Our data have established that the processing and/or perception of other sensory systems, namely the visual or somatosensory system, causes neural activity in the auditory cortex. In the seven patients that we have studied to date, asymmetry of neural activity in the auditory cortex predicts the understanding of speech via CI better than deafness duration. The proposed study therefore aims (1) to determine the way that central nervous activity in the auditory pathway changes with CI fitting and (2) to establish a biomarker for the prediction of CI outcome.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Professorin Dr. Susan Arndt; Lars Frings, Ph.D.; Simon Maier, Ph.D.; Dr. Johannes Thurow