Auditory experience modulates fronto-parietal theta activity serving fluid intelligence

Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham; Elizabeth A Walker; Brittany K Taylor; Sophia C Menting; Jacob A Eastman; Michaela R Frenzel; Ryan W McCreery

doi:10.1093/braincomms/fcac093

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Auditory experience modulates fronto-parietal theta activity serving fluid intelligence

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Auditory experience modulates fronto-parietal theta activity serving fluid intelligence

Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham, Elizabeth A Walker, Brittany K Taylor, Sophia C Menting, Jacob A Eastman, Michaela R Frenzel and Ryan W McCreery

Brain communications, Vol.4(2), pp.fcac093-fcac093

2022

DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcac093

PMCID: PMC9039508

PMID: 35480224

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Abstract

Abstract Children who are hard of hearing are at risk for developmental language and academic delays compared with children with normal hearing. Some work suggests that high-order cognitive function, including fluid intelligence, may relate to language and academic outcomes in children with hearing loss, but findings in these studies have been mixed and to date, there have been no studies of the whole-brain neural dynamics serving fluid intelligence in the context of hearing loss. To this end, this study sought to identify the impact of hearing loss and subsequent hearing aid use on the neural dynamics serving abstract reasoning in children who are hard of hearing relative to children with normal hearing using magnetoencephalography. We found significant elevations in occipital and parietal theta activity during early stimulus evaluation in children who are hard of hearing relative to normal-hearing peers. In addition, we found that greater hearing aid use was significantly related to reduced activity throughout the fronto-parietal network. Notably, there were no differences in alpha dynamics between groups during later-stage processing nor did alpha activity correlate with hearing aid use. These cross-sectional data suggest that differences in auditory experience lead to widespread alterations in the neural dynamics serving initial stimulus processing in fluid intelligence in children. Heinrichs-Graham et al. report elevations in parieto-occipital theta activity during abstract reasoning in children with hearing loss relative to children with normal hearing. Theta activity throughout the fronto-parietal network was also related to the amount of hearing aid use, underscoring the importance of consistent hearing aid use on cognitive and brain development. Graphical Abstract Graphical abstract

audiology

non-verbal cognition

hearing aids

neurophysiology

oscillations

Details

Title: Subtitle: Auditory experience modulates fronto-parietal theta activity serving fluid intelligence
Creators: Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham - University of Nebraska Medical Center
Elizabeth A Walker - University of Iowa
Brittany K Taylor - University of Nebraska Medical Center
Sophia C Menting - University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Jacob A Eastman - University of Nebraska Medical Center
Michaela R Frenzel - University of Nebraska Medical Center
Ryan W McCreery - Boys Town National Research Hospital
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Brain communications, Vol.4(2), pp.fcac093-fcac093
DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcac093
PMID: 35480224
PMCID: PMC9039508
NLM abbreviation: Brain Commun
eISSN: 2632-1297
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Language: English
Date published: 2022
Academic Unit: Communication Sciences and Disorders; Otolaryngology
Record Identifier: 9984267852802771

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