Speaker: Maureen Shader, Au.D., Ph.D., CCC-A

Role: Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at Purdue University

Title: Naturalistic speech processing in the adult auditory cortex immediately after cochlear implantation

Abstract: Sensory deprivation causes structural and functional changes to the human brain, and a diverse range of neuroimaging techniques have informed our understanding of these changes. The cortical changes that occur after the reintroduction of sensory input is less well-understood, primarily due to a lack of compatible neuroimaging techniques. Cochlear implantation delivers essentially immediate reintroduction of acoustic sensory information to the brain and provides a mechanism with which to understand how the brain adapts to abrupt reinstatement of sensory percepts. Previous reports have indicated that over a year is required for the brain to reestablish canonical cortical processing patterns after the reintroduction of auditory stimulation. However, these investigations have utilized imaging techniques that are not well suited to studying the brain in the presence of a cochlear implant, and consequently have used simple artificial stimuli that are not representative of typical listening. This talk will present a study using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)—a light-based neuroimaging method that is compatible with implanted devices—to investigate brain activity to natural speech stimuli directly after cochlear implantation and to determine if atypical cortical processing patterns are observed. Results for auditory-only speech and visual-only speech will be presented for both unilateral and bilateral cochlear implant recipients immediately following implant activation.